Almost everything is about security these days. You can definitely get a little bit confused sometimes as you may have one too many passwords or pin numbers.

 

Actually all what you should keep in mind is that these are security barriers against all kind of attacks on your personal data or documents or on your bank account. There is only one strong question related to all of this, how secure are these methods after all ?

Security has lately become a real challenge, from protecting our own personal assets like apartments or cars to protecting our own personal data. Online privacy has been a real problem and companies are trying to develop and gain as more tools as possible against phishing. There is also a question of banking security. How safe are your money after all?

What everyone believed to be an unbreakable barrier, the debit cards have just proved to be more than vulnerable. Hackers have found a way to what has been considered to be an unknown system so far, laying their hands on the encrypted data stored in the magnetic stripes of debit cards, the what we call encrypted PIN data and the key for decrypting it. The scandal reached wide proportions as well known names in the banking business like Citibank, Bank of America or Washington Mutual have been attacked. As a result, Citibank was forced to block PIN based transactions and reissue debit cards for users in Canada, Russia and U.K. The Personal Identification Number was the one thing that made the cards secure becoming now the gate in for hackers.

The opportunity seems to have been created as a result to retailers improper store of the PIN numbers after they have been entered or by keeping the keys to decrypt the PIN in the same network as the PIN themselves, which definitely means an easier way in for hackers. After getting the “golden number‿ attackers empty the account at the ATM (Automatic Transaction Machine).

The bank industry is under permanent attack and it is a little bit far away from solving the problem. What are the consumers supposed to do ? There seems only one way out for the moment, do not use your debit cards in the retail system, use ATMs and of course, constantly check your account. There isn’t much to be done, is there ?