Thought UK chatters might be interested in the reply I got when I contacted the British Banking Association about the non-security of my local Tesco Chip'n'pin keypads, as Chip'n'pin is now being rolled out nationwide ready for the disappearance of the acceptance of signatures on 1st January 2005.
"The type of PIN pad that a shop uses and where and how it is positioned are all competitive issues that individual shops have to decide on for themselves. A wealth of help, information and assistance is available for all retailers, free-of-charge, from the chip and PIN website and the topics of PIN pad accessibility, customer security and confidence are all to the fore. I do not know the type of PIN pad installed in your local Tesco, but the general advice we give to cardholders is that if the PIN pad is fixed then you use your spare hand to shield the pad as you enter your number - much in the same way as we all did when we were at school and didn't want anyone to copy our exam answers. A lot of PIN pads, however, are on a flexible cord. This means you can actually pick them up out of their holder and then turn and face any queue and hold the PIN pad where you want so the queue cannot see the keys. Also, some PIN pads do have shields on them. In some of them, your card itself acts as a shield as the top half sticks out of the machine." Does that makes me feel a whole lot better about it? - No! I went into my local Tesco earlier this evening, and they have changed the shielding since last week so it's an improvement, but still not to my liking. Jean in Poole To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
