Allen Weinberg's Musings from CardTech/SecureTech

I have to admit that some of the contactless equipment coming out is really, really cool. One vendor had a tiny RF reader that fit into the SD card slot on a PDA. They also had a tiny reader with a retractable USB cord.

Same for biometric solutions -- smaller, faster, cheaper readers and associated applications. One vendor had a really really cool ISO compliant, self powered card that had a flexible display (for the internal processor that generates one time passwords), fingerprint reader, and contactless and contact chips. Truly a piece of art (OK they're $150 each, but one has to admire the technology!)

Sadly, some vendors were pitching the same tired contact chip/smart card solutions to an unreceptive US audience. In an almost act of cruelty, I asked all of them how they planned to go to market in the US -- who are they targeting and how. Note to self: Don't ever do that again.

MagTek (the company that makes mag-stripe and check readers and components (and now, of course, integrated RF readers) was promoting "MagnePrint". For those of us old enough to remember "jitter technology" from the 1980s, this is pretty much the same thing. Simply put, each mag-stripe has a unique electronic "fingerprint" that is created during the manufacturing process. MagTek is promoting new read heads that are sensitive enough to detect these subtle electronic patterns and the associated algorithms to help issuers (or others) assess whether the card being presented is genuine or counterfeit. Seems like it may make particular sense in the ATM world with all the concern about mag-stripe skimming and such. The nice thing about this technology is that its really cheap (just $1.00 more per terminal) and works with the cards already in everyone's wallets. Said another way, the mag stripe cards in your wallet today can be turned into trusted tokens!

Some other notes: An executive from BofA/MBNA who isn't particularly a fan of small value payments (he's personally skeptical about filling statements up with small ticket transactions and associated customer service costs), gave a presentation on their PayPass initiatives. They're still evaluating results of their multiple "soft launches" as they go through the Stage Gate process. Looking at increase in activation, usage, etc. vs. reissue costs. Will also be test marketing phones, fobs, etc.