Credit Card Chip Technology and Security
From Computing and Software Wiki
Credit Card Chip (Smart Card) is a technology where microchips are integrated into credit cards. These microchips are computerized chips with enhanced security features to prevent against identity theives and fradulments. Most of the major credit card issuers have been slowly migrating to the new technology because it could potentially save them millions of dollars every year.
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What is Credit Card Chip?
Chip and PIN Technology
The card being implemented with the technology will have a microchip integrated into it. According to a major credit card issuer, these chips are virtually impossible to duplicate.The purpose of this chip is to provide consumers with better seucurity measures.
How It Works
With the newly embedded chip, each card will then require to have a unique PIN number which is randomly generated by the credit card provider or it can be chosen by the customer him/herself. In addition, the credit card owner must remember this PIN for future transactions as it will replace any signatures required. However, for those merchants who do not want to migrate to the chip technology, traditional swiping and signature can still be used for day-to-day transactions.
Background
It all started in Europe with the technology being implemented into SIM cards for mobile phones. Later, Europe has utilized this technology in their credit cards during the 1990s to most of their countries. Seeing the dramatic improvement in securities, other countries are slowly adapting to the chip integrations.
Some of the countries who have their cards implemented: (*)France (*)England (*)Australia (*)Canada
However, not everyone agree with the technology. An example would be the United States where they are not embracing the chip.
