Tap

“Tap?” the cashier asked me as I stood in the billing line, holding my credit/debit card.

As an introduction, I am an information security professional who has blogged about security/privacy topics from the year 2012. I have studied and learnt about the different defensive and offensive security strategies. Information security is persistently a ‘cat and mouse’ game. No sooner is a lock made(security measure), a subsequent key(or solution) will be found by the hackers. There are new security measures created by security professionals in the hope it will reduce breaches and security attacks. Unfortunately, the attacks and breaches continue due to the ingenuity of the attackers. So, information security is a never-ending cycle between security measures and attacking those security measures.

In the wake of this, the use ‘Tap’ or contactless mode of using credit/debit cards is definitely puzzling. If you have never used a contactless mode of using a credit/debit card, it is a simpler way of using a credit/debit card. When you want to make a payment, the cashier or you can just tap the card against the card reader and boom….the payment is made! The user is relieved the payment process was so simple and quick and so is the cashier. There is no necessity to enter the PIN, and waiting to get an approval. The ‘Tap’ mode of using a card definitely felt like magic!

It is good to note that the ‘Tap’ mode or contactless way of using credit/debit cards can only be used for small amounts and not big amounts.

The RFID technology that powers these cards was definitely mind-blowing. The card technology is also secure and ensures safety of transactions. But there was one thing as a security professional, that was gnawing at me and was a glaring vulnerability…can you guess what it is? In fact, I am not even sure if the ‘tap’ mode of cards is safe at all.

What are your thoughts? Do you think it is safe? Do share…

This post is the third post for the #BlogchatterHalfMarathon by @blogchatter