Archives for July 2007

Identity theft that matters, not dumb credit card stuff

Monday, 30 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] If you ask anyone who actually knows anything about security about risks, they’ll always tell you the same thing: insiders are the biggest threat. They might add that insiders who don’t understand how to use the most basic computer security measures and don’t understand how software that is integral to Web 2.0 works. A Japanese policeman has been sacked after the personal information of thousands of people relating to criminal investigations was leaked on to the internet from his computer. The officer revealed the details via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software on his PC. He had allegedly installed the Winny file-sharing software on to his machine and was unaware that sensitive data was being made available to other users via the P2P network, leading to the personal details of 12,000 people related to criminal investigations being shared and along with 6,600 police documents (including interrogation reports, victim statements, and classified locations of automatic licence plate readers). What’s more, the files included a list of the names, addresses and personal information concerning 400 members of the notorious criminal gang Yamaguchigumi yakuza. I wouldn’t try opening a bank account and taking out a loan in one of their names, to be honest, as they may take a more robust approach to identity theft than the Information Commissioner.

Technorati Tags: identity

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An open source national ID scheme

Friday, 27 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] I’ve mentioned a few times at various seminars that the way that the Dutch have approached the development of a national contactless smart card for transport ticketing should be studied to see what lessons can be learned and used to inform other developments. The basic reason for this is the structure of the procurement: in short, organisations were asked to tender using whatever standards and interfaces they liked but in the knowledge that whoever won would have to provide the specifications licence-free so that anyone could develop new products and services to use the cards. It’s already paid off. When Linkdump reported that students developing open source applications found a security error in the card, it reinforced to me the wisdom of the Dutch approach. The combination of open source and independent scrutiny makes that system as a whole more, not less, secure.

Technorati Tags: identity

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Coin concerns

Friday, 27 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] I couldn’t care less if I never saw a coin again (outside of a museum) but in other economic circumstances, they might be missed. The Bank of Mozambique is concerned at how the alleged absence of coins is being used as an excuse for raising prices. The chairperson of the Maputo Baker’s Association, Victor Miguel, has said that it was availability of loose change that determined the prices that are charged. He claimed it was impossible for an item to cost one metical and 70 centavos, because 10 and 20 centavo coins are supposedly unavailable (a metical is about a nickel). Mozambique’s currency was reformed last year, with small denomination coins, but retailers say they never see them (despite the Bank saying that large numbers were minted). The Bank says that retailers are refusing to get the coins because they prefer to keep the prices up. Strike another one against cash. But what if there’s another explanation? I wonder if the coins have been melted down for the metal?

Technorati Tags: coins

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“Bank” “accounts”

Thursday, 26 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] A couple of months ago, the British Department for International Development (DFID) set out an “action plan” to try and find a way to get one billion of the poorest people in the world to open their own bank account for the first time. Having just helped my thirteen year-old son to open his first bank account, I estimate that this will take about 700 years: let’s hope Tuareg tribesmen have their electricity bills and passports out and ready for inspection, otherwise the queues will stretch all the way round the Sahara. Anyway, we have a connection with this effort because mobile phones are seen as the only viable way to achieve anything like this goal and it was DFID’s Financial Deepening Challenge Fund (FDCF) that in 2003 provided a one-off grant to Safaricom to pilot and launch the M-PESA mobile banking solution in Kenya. So I wholeheartedly support the drive to provide payment services to the poorest people using the mobile handset. But bank accounts?

Technorati Tags: banking, debit cards, prepaid

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Department of the Bleedin’ Obvious

Thursday, 26 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] The American Medical Association (AMA) says that human RFID tags could pose serious privacy risks. No kidding. But note that their report has few concerns regarding the medical implications of RFID tags. The tags are implanted using a needle in less than a minute. The Assocation does have some concerns regarding possible interference with medical imaging and other medical electronics, but the report does not cite any instances of these actually occurring. So there are no medical issues, but there are privacy issues. Such as? Well, the report says that (sensibly) patients should have to give informed consent to implantation, something that is obviously sensible. It also says that doctors

cannot assure patients that the personal information contained on RFID tags will be appropriately protected

I’d assumed that all that is in the tag is some kind of ID number and that all of the identity management takes place at the back end. Not that this neutralises privacy worries, but let’s get the big picture sorted out. It shouldn’t make any difference to the overall “privacy state” of the system whether I have the number on a bracelet, a tattoo or an implant, should it?

Technorati Tags: health, identity, management

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Cost dynamics, again

Wednesday, 25 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] The Swedish central bank published some detailed figures on the cost of payments and they provide useful input to the debate on the future of payments. They show that on average the variable cost of an ATM cash withdrawal to the issuing bank is around 1.3 SKr, compared to 0.23 SKr for a debit card payment, but that is still less than credit card transactions. As in the case of the Norwegian study we discussed before, the central bank study highlights the fact that consumers get very little information through the price structure on the costs that banks have in the provision of payment services. In particular, they say that

the problem is that for a large number of payment instruments the variable fee is set to zero, although our study indicates that marginal costs are above zero

On the whole, with the exception of debit card transactions (on the acquirer side) and direct debits, variable costs and fees differ significantly. Private customers only face transaction fees when making payment transactions at the bank branch-office or when using cheques (although cheques are hardly ever used). Transaction fees are almost exclusively taken from corporate customers, particularly merchants.

Technorati Tags: costs, payments, retail

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QSR

Tuesday, 24 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] The Quick Serve Retail (QSR) segment represents more than $160 billion in spending, with more than 80 percent of transactions conducted in cash. Increasingly, U.S. customers are cards instead of cash when making these purchases. In the twelve months ending March 31, 2007, the number of Visa card transactions at quick service restaurants increased 31 percent. Debit card usage at quick service restaurants during the same period grew 32 percent over the previous year. I find myself getting annoyed when fast food places don’t take cards, and I’m not a particularly frequent visitor (despite appearances), because I can’t be bothered to go and get cash. Now, obviously, one particular thing that interests me about QSR is its role in the contactless roll-out, both because contactless seems to be a way to encourage QSR outlets to start taking cards and because the fact that they will take cards will encourage people (I imagine) to apply for contactless cards. In London, QSR might well be in the vanguard of the contactless revolution!

Technorati Tags: payments

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Privacy seminars are like London buses

Monday, 23 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] You wait ages then two come along at once. After going along to the DBERR seminar, I’d spoken at the BCS Information Security Specialist Group “Privacy Day”. I remember that, by coincidence, shortly after having woken up that morning, I heard a story on the Today programme (by forum friend Rory Cellan-Jones) about privacy. I thought he might be priming the nation for my presentation, but it turns out that the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, had that very day released his annual report. In the report he called the number of companies, government departments and public bodies breaching data protection rules “horrifying”.

Technorati Tags: privacy

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Literati

Monday, 23 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] A splendid evening: free drinks and a lot of old friends getting together at the launch of Forum friend Mike Hendry‘s new book on Multi-application Smart Cards: Technology and Applications. I won’t embarrass either Mike or myself by noting how far we go back together, but it’s quite a way. Mike is one of the people in the industry whose opinions I have always genuinely valued and it was a pleasure to co-author the Financial Times Report on Electronic Payments with him a few years ago. But I will say that his role as Technical & Operations Director at the Project Management Office (PMO) was a significant factor in the success of the chip & PIN roll-out in the U.K.

Technorati Tags: EMV, smart cards

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Export and controls

Friday, 20 July 2007 by Dave Birch

[Dave Birch] Well, it’s summer (I can tell that because of the traditional concurrent English flood warning and hosepipe ban) and time to think about my forthcoming holiday. Better get my spending money ready. As it happens, under European Union regulations, if you attempt to leave the EU with more than 10,000 euros in cash (but not pre-paid cards, phone top-up balances, wampun belts or any other instrument) then you must report yourself to the tax authorities, in my case Her Majesties Revenue and Customs. Now, as a matter of policy this blog is not for political comments, but I am moved to say that I don’t believe this will make the slightest difference to terrorists or drug dealers, but will probably result in some holidaying pensioners going straight to chokey. Accountants likened the law to a stealthy re-introduction of exchange controls which Margaret Thatcher’s administration abolished in 1979. We’ve explained before, for younger readers, what exchange controls were.

Technorati Tags: fraud, regulation, remittances

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Archives for July 2007

Identity theft that matters, not dumb credit card stuff

An open source national ID scheme

Coin concerns

“Bank” “accounts”

Department of the Bleedin’ Obvious

Cost dynamics, again

QSR

Privacy seminars are like London buses

Literati

Export and controls

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