Chip and pin cards can be hacked. Well, there’s a surprise, who would have thought that a piece of technology wouldn’t be intruder-proof? And that the prospect of free money would ever tempt a thief?

It’s on BBC tonight but as nothing short of a lobotomy would allow me to watch Watchdog, here’s a link to the Register story on it. Cambridge University researchers got the card details as a payment was made and transmitted them to a card cloner.

According to the Metro (free bus & train paper) the card companies said this was unlikely to ever be a real threat as it would need there to be a dishonest shop employee with an accomplice outside the store.

Clearly, it is an almost physical impossibility for there to be a dishonest shop employee. And for them to know another person – the odds aginst that must be billions to one.

Tags: cards, credit, crime, chip and pin, BBC, fraud, technology, society.