2 felix FRIDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2010

Technology Editor Samuel Gibbs

Chip-and-PIN yourself Return of the

T
his week has seen the annual really suits the small screen.

T
he days of securely paying Mobile World Congress take The Start screen holds rows of tiles
with plastic are over. It’s high place in Barcelona. MWC down the middle which are live and
time we all went back to pay- is THE place where mobile animated with ones that are used more
ing with paper money, or device manufactures come to show off often promoted to the top. The list of
perhaps even doubloons. They’re both their latest wares and where journalists tiles can be infinitely long and scrolled
probably safer than the current elec- flock to attempt to chart what we can down with a swipe. Status updates
tronic system we have in the UK, the all expect for the mobile year. and things like that can be pushed to
infamous ‘Chip-and-PIN’. Last week, This year Microsoft stole the show the tile allowing you to see them at a
eminent security researcher Ross An- with what can only be described as glance of the animation.
derson and his team published a paper a mobile resurgence with Windows Microsoft has also fleshed out the
identifying a huge security flaw in the Phone 7. OK, so Windows Mobile/ ‘hub’, something that will be familiar
system that governs all of our real-life Phone 6 and 6.5 run quite a lot of to Zune HD users. Hubs offer a middle
credit and debit card transactions. The phones out there, but it’s been a dead ground between icons and a full blown
take home message of the paper was actually quite complicated, with data unauthorised purchases onto the card- duck for the last two years. With com- application. A hub is an extension of
that our cards are not, and have never and numbers being transferred up and holder. If the system worked securely petition from Android, the iPhone, the the OS which can carry content in from
been, as secure as we all thought. down and all over the place, but the this arrangement would be fine and it ever-present RIM and Palm’s webOS, both local or cloud sources, meaning
Before our current system, bank important part happens when you ac- probably is the consumer’s fault if they it was about time Microsoft brought photo galleries can be browsed right
cards carried just the magnetic stripe tually type in your PIN. let someone else know their PIN. Now themselves into the modern smart- from a hub. Think of them as a way to
that stored the account details of the The PIN is punched into the termi- this security hole has been unveiled it phone game. pull information into the OS without
card. Cashiers would swipe the card nal’s keypad and sent to the card. The means that thieves have a means to use Windows Phone 7 series represents a having to have a separate app running.
and ask for a signature from the cus- card then decides if the PIN is correct stolen cards and therefore the card- serious paradigm shift from Microsoft. Microsoft showed off a variety of hubs
tomer, which would then be compared and sends the appropriate message holder genuinely isn’t to blame. Banks Not only is it based on Windows CE6, at MWC2010 including a People hub
to one written on the back of the card. back to the terminal. The security flaw can and do hide behind the fact that like the Zune HD, but they’ve com- which pulls in contact information and
It meant the decision of whether or not arises due to the fact that this conver- purchases are supposedly ‘verified by pletely rewritten their UI playbook. status updates from social networks,
the signatures matched was up to the sation between the card and the termi- PIN’, with at least one court case us- Gone is the reliance of a stylus to get contact databases such as Gmail’s
cashier. This system worked pretty well nal keypad is not encrypted. A piece of ing this as evidence of consumer neg- things done, the humble finger reigns contacts and of course Exchange. The
for the customer, except for the fact it electronics in the middle can intercept ligence. This weakness brought to light supreme as it should. Infact Windows smart thing about the hub is that the
was pretty open to fraud from forging the PIN entered on the terminal and by Anderson and his team however Phone 7 is so drastically different from first screen you see is a dynamically
of signatures or card cloning of stolen simply return a ‘yes’ message which suggests that this might not always be it’s predecessors and any other phone generated screen with the people you
cards on which new signatures could looks as if it originated from the card, the cause. Unfortunately for consum- operating system out there at the mo- contact most right in front of you and
be written. Chip-and-PIN was devised regardless of if the PIN was correct or ers, until this hole gets patched, which ment it’s pretty hard to describe. a section for ‘Me’ which allows you to
as the security mechanism that took not. The card never even receives the will take a very, very long time, or the Microsoft calls it’s interface ‘Metro’ update you status across multiple net-
the discretion out of the hands of the PIN and eventually just assumes some- justice system wakes up to the fact and it is essentially like a Zune interface works. Other hubs featured included
cashier and made the whole system thing went wrong and that the authen- that Chip-and-PIN is broken, there is blown up and extended. Drawing more Games with Xbox Live support, the
electronic. Cards now include a chip tication was carried out successfully by very little protection for card-wielding from it’s Zune and Media Centre expe- Marketplace, aka App Store, Music
that authenticates the transaction us- some other method, like the good old consumers. rience than Windows, Metro is heavily and Video for all your media, Pictures,
ing a PIN known only to the user, signature check. Neither the card, the What can you do to protect your- reliant on motion and typographic ele- Office and the usual calendar, mes-
which is entered into a card terminal terminal or even the bank has enough self? Very little, apart from vigilance ments forged in a high contrast, mini- sages, email, phone, Bing Maps and
when paying. The idea was that this information about the transaction to at the terminal and ATM. Check the malist UI. Gone is any degree of alpha Search, and of course IE mobile.
would make stolen cards worthless detect the subterfuge. card slot for any foreign devices such shading, bevels or modern accents that An impressive turn around for Mi-
whilst also removing any liability from So where does this leave us con- as skimmers and make sure the termi- Apple and co, insist on splashing eve- crosoft indeed but how it actually per-
the cashiers and by extension their sumers? Well, Chip-and-PIN was also nal doesn’t look like it’s been tampered rything with. That’s not to say Micro- forms in the hand remains to be seen.
employers. designed as a system to help protect with before you stick your card in it. soft’s ‘chromeless’ design lacks polish, I for one am excited to see Microsoft
The whole authentication process is banks, shifting all of the liability for Watch those statements kids. but it’s a simplified plain interface that back in the game, it’s been a while.

Weekly Wrap-up: A quick guide to the best of the rest you might have missed
Samuel Technology down/50Mbps up, real world ing vibrancy plus out- the-go green charging. only 3 years or so. The ISS this week got it’s
Gibbs Editor tests showed Sammy manag- doors readability, I Impressive little guy, Wired was in the news again new window, Cupola, bolted
ing roughly 28Mbps which to really hope Samsung but I for one couldn’t this week with more iPad relat- onto the Tranquillity module.
be fair is faster than my home and others stick this seriously consider ed talk. This time it had a fully As you can see, courtesy of
Another week, another tech broadband. A lot to get excited amazing display in buying something rendered demo of Gizmodo, it presents
story and there’s plenty of about then. something a bit more phone-like with it’s digital maga- pretty impressive
them to choose from this week Perhaps even more remark- exciting! Puma branded across zine format views of Earth and
so let’s get cracking OK? able than superfast mobile More phone news it. Look for it through- which it hopes even looks like
First up for your gadget broadband was the ‘super’ from MWC in Barce- out Europe this April. to launch on a Tie Fighter to
gorging pleasure is the world’s AMOLED display Samsung lona this week from a RIM finally joined the iPad come boot. Awesome.
first 4G netbook. The Sam- had in it’s first Bada (don’t ask) rather unlikely part- the modern world March. Inter- Bad news for
sung N150 packs your usual phone the Wave. Although the nership, Puma and this week with a Web- estingly the Adobe this week
netbook fair, nothing really phone itself is a bit snooze-tas- Sagem. The Chav- Kit-based browser digital maga- as a recent report
to shake a stick at apart from tic the screen really did prove Phone, err I mean the for Blackberry. Finally zine Wired cre- indicates malicious
the LTE modem (that’s Long- to be super, showing bright, Puma Phone, features a Blackberry addicts will ated was wrapped up in Adobe PDF documents made up 80%
TermEvolution vivid and fully saturated colour capacitive touchscreen, 3.2MP have a fast, efficient mobile Air meaning it should be a of all computer exploits in
for those keeping in bright sunshine, something camera with LED flash, GPS, a browser that doesn’t suck. Will quick port to the iPhone/iPad, 2009. It seems Adobe Reader
track). Boast- ordinary AMOLED screens compass and a pedometer for this make you buy a Black- if Apple approves it of course. has become the new mass-
ing potential just can’t manage. With all sporty types. What makes this berry? Probably not, but it will The big question is, will punt- market target for malware.
speeds of the benefits of OLED screens, little begger a little different make accessing the web much ers pay for something they can Doesn’t bode well for students
100Mbps emitting their own light thus from the rest is the solar cell less of a tiresome affair. Hats normally get free online? Per- and researchers where the PDF
saving power and giving amaz- it’s packing on it’s back for on- off RIM, that didn’t take long, haps not, but only time will tell. journal article reigns supreme.