We consider the credit from all sides
Credit cards have long entered our daily life finally and irrevocably. Many, with their appearance, almost forgot about cash. Of course, this was influenced by many concomitant factors: practicality, convenience, prevalence and relative safety.
But today we will consider credits not from the usual - electronic - side, but from a slightly different one - what kind of piece of plastic it is and how it works.
History
The very first credit cards appeared about a hundred years ago (in the USA - where else), then they were used exclusively in shops, restaurants and hotels to serve respectable regular customers, and there was no question of any serial production. Cards, in fact, have replaced the payment by installments. In those distant times, credits were made of thick cardboard, then metal cards appeared (already embossed), and only then, after lengthy experiments with various plastics, did plastic cards appear.
The first firm to serially issue credit cards (for the restaurant business) was the Dinners Club (since 1949). Then, for the first time, a credit manufacturing company worked as an intermediary between a buyer and a seller. Dinners Club also tried to create a universal card (by the way - the company is still alive). Then American Express (the largest manufacturer of traveler's checks), Bank of America and Chase Manhattan Bank (the two largest banks in the country) took over the production of credit. In 1966, Bank Of America made a major breakthrough by allowing other banks to transact with their BankAmericard branded credit cards. In a short time, this payment system acquired a national scale, then a second such system was organized in the country - the Interbank Cards Association.
Soon, plastic cards became an international standard, the number of users was measured in tens of millions. In 1976, Americard changed its name to Visa (to enter the global arena), and in 1980 MasterCharge changed to MasterCard. For several years, these payment systems have become the largest in the world (in the banking environment) and are not going to give up their positions. By the way, these two systems opposed each other for a long time, forbidding banks to issue both cards at the same time, but that was before. The improvement of the credit continues to this day, the next stage of evolution is planned for an almost complete transition to smart cards, which will add many advantages (first of all, serious protection based on cryptographic algorithms), but I will talk about this below.
Standard
The introduction of the world standard was a decisive factor for universal acceptance. Today there are credit cards of only one standard - ID-1, others are simply (yet or already) not used. This standard defines everything up to a hundredth of a millimeter, each element of the credit must be exactly in its place and fully perform the function assigned to it. Naturally, absolutely all service equipment (imprinters, electronic terminals, ATMs) is produced according to this world standard. Manufacturers of plastic cards are only allowed to experiment with the design of cards, and even then in a very strict framework.
All credit cards can be divided into several classes:
1. Chip cards (smart cards) - credit cards with a built-in microcircuit or memory (chip).
2. Embossed cards - credit cards, part of the text on which is printed by embossing or thermal printing. Embossed text is necessary for printing receipts, but it is used mainly in the United States and for visual recognition of text.
3. Magnetic cards - magnetic stripe credits.
This division is extremely arbitrary, since in most credits these characteristics are combined (sometimes all three at the same time).
A credit card consists of several separate functional elements, which I will discuss in more detail below: a piece of plastic (with embossed text), a magnetic stripe, a microcircuit or memory (chip) and some other less significant elements.
The foundation
The card itself is made of a piece of special plastic measuring 85.6x53.98x0.76 mm. Plastic is produced using a complex technology, painted, mandatory general information about the issuer and the payment association is applied to the blank, as well as a memo to the owner, contact information of the manufacturer and a photo of the owner. After this, the credit is laminated, then (if necessary) the necessary identification data (card number, owner's name, expiration date) are embossed or laser burned on it, a chip or magnetic stripe is embedded. During production, special attention is paid to safety during personalization of the card (applying the owner's identification data and flashing the microcircuit memory (encoding)). Also, all stages of the production of loans are under close quality control - the marriage must be eliminated immediately,
Magnetic stripe
The magnetic stripe is located on the reverse of the credit, at the top, near the top edge. Outwardly, it does not represent anything interesting - a black or brown stripe along the entire length of the card. The strip consists of several magnetic tracks (most often - 3). Its width is from 10.1 to 10.3 mm (if there are 3 tracks on the creed). Each track is responsible for storing its own information, with a maximum of 107 characters (numeric or alphabetic) per track.
Track 1 contains basic information: identification number, general information about the owner, information about the issuer, card expiration date and some service information.
Track 2 is responsible for authorizing the card (it completely determines what operations and for what amount you can perform with the credit), and also duplicates part of the information from the first track.
Track 3 is mainly used when working with an ATM (sometimes it may not exist - then the magnetic stripe will be narrower). The first two tracks are read-only, the third is also for writing (for example, an ATM makes notes about the withdrawal of money on it). To protect the magnetic stripe from counterfeiting, there are special verification codes CVV (Card Verification Value) for Visa and CVC (Card Verification Code) for Europay, but they cannot resist copying the strip.
Chip
The chip is the most high-tech element of the credit, and, of course, this type of card has been used relatively recently. It is safe to say that smart cards are the future (or rather, the present).
Chip cards have many advantages over others and only one disadvantage. The first plus is the reliable storage of information. And this is one of the determining factors in financial transactions (after all, no one wants to lose money). Although, as you know, there is no impenetrable defense. Then, if a microcircuit is used in the card, then the credit itself can decide on the legality of the transaction being performed. The disadvantages include, perhaps, the relatively high production cost of the card.
Chip cards are divided into memory cards and microcircuit cards.
The most common now are credits with memory (this is the simplest version of a chip card).
EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is used to store information. To ensure the safety of financial transactions, all memory is divided into several zones, each of which is protected separately (each with its own key, one of them with your pin-code). The terminal is engaged in reading information and determining the validity of the card.
Microcircuit cards are much more complex, and, accordingly, the cost of their production is much higher. The credits use 8-bit percent, and also have permanent (ROM) and random access (RAM) memory. The same EEPROM is used to store information. The working software (a kind of operating system) is hardwired and cannot be overwritten. Hardware cryptographic protection is usually built on RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) or DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithms - you've probably read about them many times in Hacker.
Of course, no batteries are provided on the card, so the credit is "turned on" only when the operating voltage is supplied to it by the terminal (through the contacts of the chip).
One of the bonuses of a microcircuit credit is an electronic wallet. It is implemented in hardware and is a special file in memory that contains information about the amount of funds in the account. To access the wallet, you need to know the pin code. When adding or debiting funds from the account, the file changes accordingly.
For most chip credits, the EMV specification is used, developed by the largest payment systems: Europay, MasterCard and Visa.
With all this, a credit card can also perform additional functions. For example, to play the role of a contactless metro pass (by the way, such credits are sometimes given to students even in our universities).
In recent years, various projects of devices for the contactless use of contact credits (for example, using Bluetooth) have begun to be promoted. Those. you insert the credit card into a small adapter and you no longer need to take out the card when paying. The adapter itself will exchange all the necessary data with the electronic terminal. Since all data is transmitted over the radio channel, there is no guarantee that no one will intercept it. Therefore, all traffic is encrypted (using keys that are transmitted only at the stage of card personalization). This, of course, looks rather unreliable, but what can you do - everyone wants convenience.
Shield and sword
Physical (sometimes also called printing) credit card protection consists of several parts. This includes, for example: a hologram, a signature strip, a photograph of the owner, hidden drawings / inscriptions, and a micro font. Let's dwell on this in more detail.
Hologram. A hologram is made from several connected layers of foil, often part of the text is also embossed on it, which complicates attempts to make a fake credit. For example, the hologram of Visa depicts a dove that rotates its head and flaps its wings, the MasterCard has a colorful globe and a map of the world. For a long time, they could not accurately forge a hologram, now this is no longer a problem.
Signature strip. The signature strip is located on the reverse of the credit. The background of the strip is an asymmetrical and / or complex pattern; it is made of an appropriate material that prevents the signature from being erased and washed off. It is necessary that the signature is fully consistent with the signature on the identity document of the owner. In some cases, the card number is still burned out on the strip with a laser.
Photo of the owner. Also located on the reverse. A photo is the easiest way to check if you are the owner.
Hidden drawings / inscriptions. Usually, hidden drawings invisible to the naked eye are applied to the card with special paints. Such patterns are visible either in ultraviolet light or through special filters.
Micro font. Micro font printing is another form of security. The text printed in micro-type is practically invisible to the naked eye - the height of each letter is about 1/5 mm. For example, on a Visa Electron card, micro-type text is located around the perimeter of the Visa and Electron logos.
Protecting credit cards gets more complicated as they spread. Manufacturers come up with all the new types of protection, and they all are gradually bypassed. With the large-scale introduction of a new type of cards, many difficulties arise, given how many millions of people now use credit cards (they all need to withdraw credit cards and issue new ones). Now the printing security is going through a certain crisis, the market for counterfeits is taking on a critical size, banks are suffering big losses from caring. The only hope remains to move to smart cards with hardware-based cryptographic protection.
How we are faked
Despite such a serious protection, there are a lot of forgeries. Many fakes are made literally on the knee, and their quality leaves much to be desired, but there are also practically indistinguishable from the real ones. By the way, in terms of the number of counterfeits, Russia is a recognized leader.
The most widespread and the highest quality type of fakes is the so-called "white plastic". It is used as follows: data about the cardholder is applied to virgin clean credits (blanks). Sometimes the numbers on the card are interrupted (cut / pasted) and this method, due to its popularity, even got the name shave & paste (cut and paste). It is clear that all such actions are criminally punishable (the term can be considerable).
As you can see, creda is not just a plastic plate. Credit cards are constantly being improved (now the credit resembles a miniature computer), manufacturers are joining forces to fight counterfeiting. How it all ends - we'll see, but credit cards were, are and will be.
In 1976, Americard changed its name to Visa (to enter the global arena), and in 1980 MasterCharge changed to MasterCard. For several years, these payment systems have become the largest in the world (in the banking environment) and are not going to give up their positions.
Today there are credit cards of only one standard - ID-1, others are simply (yet or already) not used. This standard defines everything up to a hundredth of a millimeter, each element of the credit must be exactly in its place and fully perform the function assigned to it.
During production, special attention is paid to safety at the stage of personalization of the card (applying the owner's identification data and flashing the microcircuit memory (encoding)).
The protective mechanisms of the credits include: a hologram, a signature strip, a photograph of the owner, and a micro font.
Credit cards have long entered our daily life finally and irrevocably. Many, with their appearance, almost forgot about cash. Of course, this was influenced by many concomitant factors: practicality, convenience, prevalence and relative safety.
But today we will consider credits not from the usual - electronic - side, but from a slightly different one - what kind of piece of plastic it is and how it works.
History
The very first credit cards appeared about a hundred years ago (in the USA - where else), then they were used exclusively in shops, restaurants and hotels to serve respectable regular customers, and there was no question of any serial production. Cards, in fact, have replaced the payment by installments. In those distant times, credits were made of thick cardboard, then metal cards appeared (already embossed), and only then, after lengthy experiments with various plastics, did plastic cards appear.
The first firm to serially issue credit cards (for the restaurant business) was the Dinners Club (since 1949). Then, for the first time, a credit manufacturing company worked as an intermediary between a buyer and a seller. Dinners Club also tried to create a universal card (by the way - the company is still alive). Then American Express (the largest manufacturer of traveler's checks), Bank of America and Chase Manhattan Bank (the two largest banks in the country) took over the production of credit. In 1966, Bank Of America made a major breakthrough by allowing other banks to transact with their BankAmericard branded credit cards. In a short time, this payment system acquired a national scale, then a second such system was organized in the country - the Interbank Cards Association.
Soon, plastic cards became an international standard, the number of users was measured in tens of millions. In 1976, Americard changed its name to Visa (to enter the global arena), and in 1980 MasterCharge changed to MasterCard. For several years, these payment systems have become the largest in the world (in the banking environment) and are not going to give up their positions. By the way, these two systems opposed each other for a long time, forbidding banks to issue both cards at the same time, but that was before. The improvement of the credit continues to this day, the next stage of evolution is planned for an almost complete transition to smart cards, which will add many advantages (first of all, serious protection based on cryptographic algorithms), but I will talk about this below.
Standard
The introduction of the world standard was a decisive factor for universal acceptance. Today there are credit cards of only one standard - ID-1, others are simply (yet or already) not used. This standard defines everything up to a hundredth of a millimeter, each element of the credit must be exactly in its place and fully perform the function assigned to it. Naturally, absolutely all service equipment (imprinters, electronic terminals, ATMs) is produced according to this world standard. Manufacturers of plastic cards are only allowed to experiment with the design of cards, and even then in a very strict framework.
All credit cards can be divided into several classes:
1. Chip cards (smart cards) - credit cards with a built-in microcircuit or memory (chip).
2. Embossed cards - credit cards, part of the text on which is printed by embossing or thermal printing. Embossed text is necessary for printing receipts, but it is used mainly in the United States and for visual recognition of text.
3. Magnetic cards - magnetic stripe credits.
This division is extremely arbitrary, since in most credits these characteristics are combined (sometimes all three at the same time).
A credit card consists of several separate functional elements, which I will discuss in more detail below: a piece of plastic (with embossed text), a magnetic stripe, a microcircuit or memory (chip) and some other less significant elements.
The foundation
The card itself is made of a piece of special plastic measuring 85.6x53.98x0.76 mm. Plastic is produced using a complex technology, painted, mandatory general information about the issuer and the payment association is applied to the blank, as well as a memo to the owner, contact information of the manufacturer and a photo of the owner. After this, the credit is laminated, then (if necessary) the necessary identification data (card number, owner's name, expiration date) are embossed or laser burned on it, a chip or magnetic stripe is embedded. During production, special attention is paid to safety during personalization of the card (applying the owner's identification data and flashing the microcircuit memory (encoding)). Also, all stages of the production of loans are under close quality control - the marriage must be eliminated immediately,
Magnetic stripe
The magnetic stripe is located on the reverse of the credit, at the top, near the top edge. Outwardly, it does not represent anything interesting - a black or brown stripe along the entire length of the card. The strip consists of several magnetic tracks (most often - 3). Its width is from 10.1 to 10.3 mm (if there are 3 tracks on the creed). Each track is responsible for storing its own information, with a maximum of 107 characters (numeric or alphabetic) per track.
Track 1 contains basic information: identification number, general information about the owner, information about the issuer, card expiration date and some service information.
Track 2 is responsible for authorizing the card (it completely determines what operations and for what amount you can perform with the credit), and also duplicates part of the information from the first track.
Track 3 is mainly used when working with an ATM (sometimes it may not exist - then the magnetic stripe will be narrower). The first two tracks are read-only, the third is also for writing (for example, an ATM makes notes about the withdrawal of money on it). To protect the magnetic stripe from counterfeiting, there are special verification codes CVV (Card Verification Value) for Visa and CVC (Card Verification Code) for Europay, but they cannot resist copying the strip.
Chip
The chip is the most high-tech element of the credit, and, of course, this type of card has been used relatively recently. It is safe to say that smart cards are the future (or rather, the present).
Chip cards have many advantages over others and only one disadvantage. The first plus is the reliable storage of information. And this is one of the determining factors in financial transactions (after all, no one wants to lose money). Although, as you know, there is no impenetrable defense. Then, if a microcircuit is used in the card, then the credit itself can decide on the legality of the transaction being performed. The disadvantages include, perhaps, the relatively high production cost of the card.
Chip cards are divided into memory cards and microcircuit cards.
The most common now are credits with memory (this is the simplest version of a chip card).
EEPROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is used to store information. To ensure the safety of financial transactions, all memory is divided into several zones, each of which is protected separately (each with its own key, one of them with your pin-code). The terminal is engaged in reading information and determining the validity of the card.
Microcircuit cards are much more complex, and, accordingly, the cost of their production is much higher. The credits use 8-bit percent, and also have permanent (ROM) and random access (RAM) memory. The same EEPROM is used to store information. The working software (a kind of operating system) is hardwired and cannot be overwritten. Hardware cryptographic protection is usually built on RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) or DES (Data Encryption Standard) algorithms - you've probably read about them many times in Hacker.
Of course, no batteries are provided on the card, so the credit is "turned on" only when the operating voltage is supplied to it by the terminal (through the contacts of the chip).
One of the bonuses of a microcircuit credit is an electronic wallet. It is implemented in hardware and is a special file in memory that contains information about the amount of funds in the account. To access the wallet, you need to know the pin code. When adding or debiting funds from the account, the file changes accordingly.
For most chip credits, the EMV specification is used, developed by the largest payment systems: Europay, MasterCard and Visa.
With all this, a credit card can also perform additional functions. For example, to play the role of a contactless metro pass (by the way, such credits are sometimes given to students even in our universities).
In recent years, various projects of devices for the contactless use of contact credits (for example, using Bluetooth) have begun to be promoted. Those. you insert the credit card into a small adapter and you no longer need to take out the card when paying. The adapter itself will exchange all the necessary data with the electronic terminal. Since all data is transmitted over the radio channel, there is no guarantee that no one will intercept it. Therefore, all traffic is encrypted (using keys that are transmitted only at the stage of card personalization). This, of course, looks rather unreliable, but what can you do - everyone wants convenience.
Shield and sword
Physical (sometimes also called printing) credit card protection consists of several parts. This includes, for example: a hologram, a signature strip, a photograph of the owner, hidden drawings / inscriptions, and a micro font. Let's dwell on this in more detail.
Hologram. A hologram is made from several connected layers of foil, often part of the text is also embossed on it, which complicates attempts to make a fake credit. For example, the hologram of Visa depicts a dove that rotates its head and flaps its wings, the MasterCard has a colorful globe and a map of the world. For a long time, they could not accurately forge a hologram, now this is no longer a problem.
Signature strip. The signature strip is located on the reverse of the credit. The background of the strip is an asymmetrical and / or complex pattern; it is made of an appropriate material that prevents the signature from being erased and washed off. It is necessary that the signature is fully consistent with the signature on the identity document of the owner. In some cases, the card number is still burned out on the strip with a laser.
Photo of the owner. Also located on the reverse. A photo is the easiest way to check if you are the owner.
Hidden drawings / inscriptions. Usually, hidden drawings invisible to the naked eye are applied to the card with special paints. Such patterns are visible either in ultraviolet light or through special filters.
Micro font. Micro font printing is another form of security. The text printed in micro-type is practically invisible to the naked eye - the height of each letter is about 1/5 mm. For example, on a Visa Electron card, micro-type text is located around the perimeter of the Visa and Electron logos.
Protecting credit cards gets more complicated as they spread. Manufacturers come up with all the new types of protection, and they all are gradually bypassed. With the large-scale introduction of a new type of cards, many difficulties arise, given how many millions of people now use credit cards (they all need to withdraw credit cards and issue new ones). Now the printing security is going through a certain crisis, the market for counterfeits is taking on a critical size, banks are suffering big losses from caring. The only hope remains to move to smart cards with hardware-based cryptographic protection.
How we are faked
Despite such a serious protection, there are a lot of forgeries. Many fakes are made literally on the knee, and their quality leaves much to be desired, but there are also practically indistinguishable from the real ones. By the way, in terms of the number of counterfeits, Russia is a recognized leader.
The most widespread and the highest quality type of fakes is the so-called "white plastic". It is used as follows: data about the cardholder is applied to virgin clean credits (blanks). Sometimes the numbers on the card are interrupted (cut / pasted) and this method, due to its popularity, even got the name shave & paste (cut and paste). It is clear that all such actions are criminally punishable (the term can be considerable).
As you can see, creda is not just a plastic plate. Credit cards are constantly being improved (now the credit resembles a miniature computer), manufacturers are joining forces to fight counterfeiting. How it all ends - we'll see, but credit cards were, are and will be.
In 1976, Americard changed its name to Visa (to enter the global arena), and in 1980 MasterCharge changed to MasterCard. For several years, these payment systems have become the largest in the world (in the banking environment) and are not going to give up their positions.
Today there are credit cards of only one standard - ID-1, others are simply (yet or already) not used. This standard defines everything up to a hundredth of a millimeter, each element of the credit must be exactly in its place and fully perform the function assigned to it.
During production, special attention is paid to safety at the stage of personalization of the card (applying the owner's identification data and flashing the microcircuit memory (encoding)).
The protective mechanisms of the credits include: a hologram, a signature strip, a photograph of the owner, and a micro font.
