From: Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@nsb.fv.com>
Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 04:50:48 +0800
To: stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Crypto suggestion - re: Fatal Flaws in Credit Cards
In-Reply-To: <199602030951.BAA12301@ix2.ix.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <Yl4wA_mMc50eR5ggBj@nsb.fv.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Excerpts from mail.cypherpunks: 3-Feb-96 Crypto suggestion - re: Fat..
Bill Stewart@ix.netcom.c (2735*)

> Nathaniel's written about the "fatal flaw" in any system that
> involves typing credit card numbers into your computer being that
> they're easy for a keyboard-sniffer or similar cracker to recognize.
> An obvious work-around for this (and for many of the problems with
> Social Security / Taxpayer ID numbers) is to use some sort of smartcard
> that generates one-shot numbers that the credit card company (or tax thugs)
> can map back to the "real" owner's ID.  

Absolutely true.  If you go back to my original post, I mentioned smart
cards as one possible solution.  Once you add smart cards, you don't
have the system I described as fatally flawed, which is software-only
encryption of credit card numbers.  -- NB
--------
Nathaniel Borenstein <nsb@fv.com>
Chief Scientist, First Virtual Holdings
FAQ & PGP key: nsb+faq@nsb.fv.com