Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Dave Levenson Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Phone Credit Cards Message-ID: <3735@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 10 Feb 90 04:56:19 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Westmark, Inc., Warren, NJ, USA Lines: 31 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 91, message 7 of 9 In article <3585@accuvax.nwu.edu>, jad@dayton.dhdsc.mn.org (J. Deters) writes: > >>Note: Bank ATM cards, like telco cards, _do_ have your PIN > >>magnetically encoded on the card. > > >Although that was true for some early ATMs, it's not generally true > >any more. The number from your card along with the PIN you enter are > >sent along to the issuing bank for validation. My bank sends out > > It is definitely no longer true. I program the Point-Of-Sale > equipment for Dayton-Hudson Dept. Stores Co., and have had to do an > awful lot with MSR cards these days! ... Perhaps it is not true today, but less than a year ago when I was issued a new card, they put it into a machine and handed me a keyboard, telling me to select and enter a PIN. After I did so, the machine apparently updated the mag stripe on the card. In any case, the only external connection to that machine was its power-cord. If it didn't communicate the PIN to anyplace, it must have written it on the card (perhaps encrypted, like the password field in /etc/passwd?) -- Dave Levenson Voice: (201 | 908) 647 0900 Westmark, Inc. Internet: dave@westmark.uu.net Warren, NJ, USA UUCP: {uunet | rutgers | att}!westmark!dave [The Man in the Mooney] AT&T Mail: !westmark!dave