Comment A little bit of real information (Score 3, Informative) 333
I worked for a company that specialized in smart card devices and was present while some of the technical and political discussions took place. The implementation, at that time at least, was up to the credit card company but the potential is this (read potential means this may or may not be the route your CC company chose):
A smartcard could secure your credit card number so that only the banks ever see it plaintext. That means you never see it, the merchant and his punk waiter never see it. If they get clever and intercept the transmission, they'll see encrypted traffic - it behaves very similarly to SSL. The PIN is an authorization to allow the transaction to occurr, and interestingly the entering of the PIN# becomes one of the hardest security parts to lock down. I even saw prototype smartcards with little keypads right on them!
Having worked with the technology, I have FAR more faith in a (proper) smartcard-secured credit card transaction than a normal one. Imagine being able to go to po-dunk computer supplier.com and not have to give him your CC # to make a purchase? It's a good thing.
A smartcard could secure your credit card number so that only the banks ever see it plaintext. That means you never see it, the merchant and his punk waiter never see it. If they get clever and intercept the transmission, they'll see encrypted traffic - it behaves very similarly to SSL. The PIN is an authorization to allow the transaction to occurr, and interestingly the entering of the PIN# becomes one of the hardest security parts to lock down. I even saw prototype smartcards with little keypads right on them!
Having worked with the technology, I have FAR more faith in a (proper) smartcard-secured credit card transaction than a normal one. Imagine being able to go to po-dunk computer supplier.com and not have to give him your CC # to make a purchase? It's a good thing.
