By Gemma Simpson, 3 May 2007 15:45
NEWS
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is dishing out chip and PIN devices to its online banking customers.
The chip and PIN card readers will be sent to customers free of charge and people will start receiving the devices this week.
An RBS spokeswoman told silicon.com customers who make frequent "advanced transactions" - people setting up payments to new third party accounts, setting up new standing order payees or changing online banking PINs or passwords - will be the first to receive the devices.
The spokeswoman said: "The aim of the project is that all our customers who use online banking will eventually have a card reader."
silicon.com Financial Services
Get the latest financial services news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the FS newsletter today!
The chip and PIN terminal works in conjunction with the RBS online banking system. When a customer is - for example - setting up a third party payment, an eight-digit code is displayed on the bank's website.
The customer then puts their card into the chip and PIN device and types in the PIN, followed by the eight-digit on-screen code.
The chip and PIN terminal then uses this information to generate a unique 'response code' which the customer then feeds into the online banking system to authorise the transaction.
Customers who want to use online banking to view account details and pay existing bills will be able to continue to use the online banking system as normal without the need for chip and PIN readers.
Because this is a staged rollout, there are no exact plans as to when and how many chip and PIN terminals will be handed out, said the spokeswoman.
RBS is hot on the heels of Barclays which is in the process of sending out half a million chip and PIN terminals to its online customers.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. Charles Smith
These devices validate the PIN typed in against the encrypted PIN stored on your Bank Card chip.
Get it wrong three times and it will lock your card - I've Xiring unit on my desk as I type.
Much worse is that these units can easily acquired by thugs/muggers to check the PIN of the cards just stolen from you at knife point.
The units are general purpose and not tied to any particular cards. They should be designed in such a way that you can download private keys from the bank. Those keys would be only for the cards that you would have a valid need to validate.
Any "alien" bank cards should then just be ignored by the Xiring readers. That would reduce the risk of the readers getting into the wrong hands.
2. Olivier Riviere
The chip and Pin system is in usage in France since about 20 years. It is amazing that it is still a rarity elsewhere
3. Chris Allen
Any security system has weaknesses and the weaknesses of chip-and-pin are documented but I believe this is definitely a step in the right direction. Usability has as much to do with security as strong cryptography does and its getting to the point where a single person can't remember all their online passwords so devices like this I believe are becoming essential.