Obama orders chip-and-PIN in government credit cards

Under the order, government-issued cards that transmit federal benefits such as Social SecuritySecurity will have microchips embedded instead of the usual magnetic strips, as well as associated PINs like those typically used for consumer debit cards. A replacement program for the cards is set to begin on Jan. 1 of next year, with the goal to have more than 1 million such cards issued by the end of the year, Obama said at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, according to a press release. Alles zu Security auf CIO.de

The order comes following a spate of breaches of payment systems at major retailers including Home Depot, Kmart and Target, which have affected more than 100 million Americans over the past year, according to figures published by the White House.

A chip-and-PIN system, which is already standard in Europe, is designed to make it harder for cyber thieves to steal payment card information. The technology requires special readers to scan the chip, plus the entry of a PIN that only the cardholder knows. For credit cards, it's essentially a two-step authentication procedure that's supposed to be superior to the use of a magnetic strip and a signature.

Also, because a unique code is generated by the chip each time, it's more difficult for criminals to create fraudulent card copies, the thinking goes.

Chip-and-PIN isn't foolproof, however. One possible danger: Hackers may load their own specialized software onto the reader systems to capture the data.