Re:

["Joseph M. Reagle Jr." <reagle@rpcp.mit.edu>]

At 03:41 PM 1/16/96, you wrote:

>I thought you might find this interesting...

        Thanks, that is very cool beyond just ecommerce, because what does
it mean for personal encryption?  If I buy one of these doo-hickeys for
$100, and so do you, does that mean we don't have to buy an AT&T 3600
(secure phone) to talk securely, and also not have to worry about Clipper
crap?  Or (as it probably is) does that mean we _have_ to talk through this
company and it only sends tiny bits of info from the card reader... (it'd be
cool if you could modify it...)
        Interesting.

>
>found at:http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9601/encryption/index.html
>New security device may broaden business on the web
>
>January 16, 1996
>Web posted at: 9:30 p.m EST (1430 GMT)
>
>>From Correspondent Marsha Walton
>
>ATLANTA (CNN) -- For cyberspace marketers, The World Wide Web is a potential
>world wide mall, an electronic marketplace for consumer goods and services. 
>
>  But for now, most visitors are window-shopping, not buying. A new survey by
>the University of Michigan shows consumers are wary of purchasing goods
>online for fear their credit card numbers will be misappropriated.
>
>  People who think nothing of giving their credit card number to an anonymous
>voice over the phone or handing their card to a waitress at a restaurant,
>flinch at the thought of putting that number into a computer. 
>
>  But a New Jersey, ISED Corp., has created a device that
>secures transactions, both on the Internet and over the telephone. It's
>called SED, or secure encryption
>device. It costs about a hundred dollars, attaches to a
>phone or a PC and operates with the swipe of either a credit or ATM card. 
>
>  "What the device will really allow is consumers a new form
>of payment from home using their ATM card. They'll be able to purchase goods
>and services or whatever on the internet, " said Roger Payne, an engineer
>for BT Labs which is testing the product.
>
>  Potentially vulnerable personal account information is
>scrambled or encrypted on the magnetic stripe on the card. It is
>electronically transferred through the hardware. That eliminates the need 
>to say or "key in" the account number or expiration date. 
>
>  "So that if somebody who is not supposed to be looking at it, they can't
>understand what's in there," said Grant Helmendach whose company BUYPASS
>processes three quarters of a billion financial transactions a year. 
>
>   BUYPASS is marketing SED to "mom and pop" retailers which charge goods by
>making an imprint of credit cards, relying on paper transactions that are
>costlier, and less secure.
>
>   "Lots of folks want to focus on the Walmarts of the world. not a lot of
>people have focused on the smaller specialty shops, specialty retailers, and
>what folks at SED have done, is built a terminal that's very inexpensive, 
>so they can play in this game. They have financial incentive to do that," 
>said Helmendach.
>
>   As buying by computer catches on, the device could eventually be used to pay
>for everything from a pizza delivery to bailing a friend out of jail, and
>would be as much a part of the home computer as a floppy disk or a hard drive. 
>
>   And just as consumers have grown accustomed to computers and ATM cards, the
>combination of the two could be another step toward a "cashless" society. 
_______________________
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Joseph Reagle          http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html
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