Hi Anders,

> NFC is a *consumer* oriented solution.  Such solutions by definition
> do not even try to solve all problems you describe.


And this limits the usefullness. Authentication is essential core
technology.  If authentication is vulnerable to a MITM attack, then
won't an e-Purse application likewise be vulnerable? 


>  That the device
> would authenticate to the reader is out of scope in that realm.  You
> should rather compare this to WLAN connections.

Security is based on the sum of the pieces. If any part of the chain can be 
compromised, 
it is dangerous to be used for any sort of financial transaction.
 

> There are no share secrets as that does not scale to a 2 billion user
> level (2008).

Yes. Which is why PKI is important to authenticate the reader as well
as the card.  Of if it's not used between the reader and the NFC
device, the device has to ensure that data traveling THROUGH the reader
is secure.


> 
> >From a security point of view it is though worth mentioning that
> - PIN codes stay in the device
> - Security operations are never performed without informaing/questioning the user
> 
> ===========================================
> This is something existing smart card systems fail to achieve.
> ===========================================

Which is why NFC is interesting.

> And again: human-related problems are much bigger and no crypto
> in the world will ever solve it.
> 
> Anders

Sure. But unless there is a secure infrastructure, and open review of
the technology, consumer deployment of NFC will be limited.  The same
holds true for existing smartcard products, by the way, as well as
BlueTooth and ZigBee. 
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