Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!iuvax!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request
From: syd@dsinc.dsi.com (Syd Weinstein)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Phone Credit Cards
Message-ID: <3589@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Feb 90 13:52:01 GMT
Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu
Reply-To: syd@DSI.COM
Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc.  Huntingdon Valley, PA
Lines: 24
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 80, message 7 of 10


dave%westmark@uunet.uu.net (Dave Levenson) writes:

>In article <3438@accuvax.nwu.edu>, dwp@cci632.uucp (Dana Paxson) writes:
>Note: Bank ATM cards, like telco cards, _do_ have your PIN
>magnetically encoded on the card.  It is nice of the banks, however,
>to have thought of not printing it in a human-readable place on the
>card.

While in the past, (ten years ago), banks have put the PIN on the
card, presently most banks do not.  It is indeed a database lookup.
The interbank switching system (Cirrus, Plus, etc.) do indeed pass
encrypted messages for verifying accounts and PINs.  Those banks that
do put the PIN on the back, for use by off line machines, usually now
encrypt it.

It is considered too much of a security risk to put the PIN on the
card, and also too much trouble to change it, if the customer requests
a change.

=====================================================================
Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP                   Elm Coordinator
Datacomp Systems, Inc.				Voice: (215) 947-9900
syd@DSI.COM or {bpa,vu-vlsi}!dsinc!syd	        FAX:   (215) 938-0235