Your PIN Is Not So Secret

The University of Cambridge has discovered some scary vulnerabilities to the "chip and PIN" system that is used for debit cards. As best I can tell, this is the same (or at least very similar) system to what those of us in the U.S. use for our debit card purchases. An interview with one of the certifying agencies is a must see. I would say protect yourself, but it appears there is no way to. Slashdot discussion here. I hope that I am overreacting and that this is only a UK problem, but my guess is that it is not.

Did you know...

That in the United Kingdom (UK) they don't use the metric system? Despite my fetish for all things British, I was unaware of this fact. I was familiar with the concept of "having a pint" - I, in fact, enjoy a pint now and then. But for some reason it never clicked with me that a pint wasn't a metric unit. Not only do they use pints, they use inches, pounds, feet, quarts and any number of other measurements that we, in the US, would be familiar with. It seems that this little fact has made some in the European Union (EU) quite upset with the UK. So they started waging a fight with the Brits to get them to convert to the metric system - they put forth the argument that homogeneous measurement systems will make trade easier. But alas, the UK has outlasted the EU on this one and the EU has given up what they are now calling a 'pointless battle'. I guess this all goes to show that we have more in common with the UK than simply the war in Iraq - if not our language.