New Internet ID card
Hard times for online fraudsters
2008-Apr-18
We love Internet bank transfers: in Germany more than 35 million bank accounts are accessible online and almost 1.7 billion online transfers are performed a year. However anyone wanting to perform an Internet transfer has to have a password and transaction authorization number (TAN) – which is not only complicated but also not entirely secure since hackers are able to generate fake Internet pages.
Siemens, in collaboration with a partner, has now developed a check card-sized Internet ID card which uses new technology: before making the transfer the user authenticates himself to the bank with a fingerprint and an integral code. The bank then sends back a code which appears on the screen. This code, called a flicker code, contains the actual TAN and can in turn be read from the ID card.
The procedure thus requires no additional software or hardware of any sort for the transaction. The fingerprint itself is stored only on the ID card. (PN 2008.10)
