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Securing Credit Cards
Identity theft is on the rise. It is a pretty scary idea that you could have your credit cards stolen and used
easily by anyone. Sure most of the time you can prove you weren't making the charges and you can get your
money back. However, it takes time and means you have to apply for a new card and is at best a big hassle.
At worst it could ruin your credit and cost you most or all of your savings.
Some people want to use biometrics to alleviate identity theft, but that idea sounds very big brother like
and is unlikely to win the support of the public. Another possibility is to use signature recognition software
to verify the identity of the person using the card. The difficulty with the signature verification is that
pattern recognition capabilities are not currently good enough to minimize false negatives as well as
more harmful false positives.
Which leaves my simple idea, which is not as intrusive as biometrics and not as innacurate as signature
verification. Using small passive RFID units that can be hidden anywhere on your person, on jewlery, in your
clothing or even injected into a finger or hand. The passive unit can contain 4 final bits of encryption
that is queried by the credit card reader. Without the passive unit and the final 4 encryption bits the card
will not work. Smart card readers can be purchased for PCs as well so that internet shopping can still
work. Some might not like the idea of injecting the passive device in their skin.....but who would mind hiding
it on their clothing or jewelry?
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