Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : CheckFree (CKFR) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jjs_ynot who wrote (4390)	5/20/1998 11:54:00 PM
From: BitWizrd	Respond to of 8545

Smart Cards Smart cards use Chaumian digital cash, and as such, need no third party like a CKFR or a FDC to clear the transaction. See digicash.com for an explanation of the "blind signature" encryption protocol that makes this possible. Very interesting stuff. In this geek's opinion, anyway. What Weinstein doesn't 'fess up to is that two years ago, a cryptanalyst was able to use what is known as "differential fault analysis" to actually hack the chip on these cards. He bombarded the chip with an X-rays (really!) such that he was able to introduce a precisely known quantity of fault into the chips processes. By introducing a well defined fault over and over again with known "input" to the chip, and analysing the output each time, eventually he was able to deduce the cryptographic key the chip was using to secure the test tranactions. Of course, the security measures only have to make it economically infeasible to deduce the key, not make it impossible. If you have to buy an X-ray machine and a Ph.D. from MIT to deduce the key protecting a $100.00 smart card, well, what kind of crook has that kind of money? Smart cards are good for CheckFree. The more comfortable people become with transacting electronically, the larger the potential customer base. I'd use a smart card, if my bank offered me one. Whew, gettin' thirsty, all this talk of beer. Time for a couple. Andrew.