On Sat, 17 May 1997, Adam Shostack wrote:
harka@nycmetro.com wrote:
| Their solution, called the Magneprint system, reads the millions of tiny | magnetic particles, which are unique on each card, says Professor Ronald | Indeck. | Each magnetic stripe on the card has two important areas. The first looks | like a bar code, which contains the account number. The rest is a random | pattern of magnetic information -- a signature that is different on every | card and impossible to duplicate, Indeck says.
"Impossible to duplicate." Perhaps he has never heard of the ironing trick? (You use an iron to heat one card in the proximity of the other. This breaks up the cohesion of the particles on the card close to the iron. The magnetic field in the other card causes the particles to realign themselves as they cool.)
I am currious how there new system responds to wear and tear on the card. If it is as sensitive as they claim, I bet carrying the card around in your pocket will bang the card up enough to make it show up as a duplicate. Sounds like an eventual article for Risks...