Whether you’re severely paranoid about using your credit card number online, or just addled by a crippling shopping addiction and the thrill of swiping plastic, Canada’s NetSecure Technologies has the answer: the SmartSwipe USB credit card reader.
At first glance, it’s a pretty sophisticated way to save yourself the hassle of tapping in the same 16 digits every time you need to use your card online for that new sweater, laptop, or USB credit card reader. Just swipe your card just as you do at a brick-and-mortar store to make a purchase. But you’ve got to give these Canucks credit. It’s much more sophisticated than that.
The SmartSwipe actually encodes your credit card digits internally using Dynamic SSL technology before transferring them to your PC, where they’re in turn passed off directly to the retailer – which is itself verified to be legit by NetSecure software running on your PC. Because the digits don’t flow in through your keyboard as they typically would, there’s no opportunity for hackers to lift them through a key logger. And because they aren’t stored anywhere on your PC, there’s no opportunity for hackers to steal them at a later point, should your PC become compromised by a Trojan.
Of course, unless you plan on never handing your credit card over to a waiter at a restaurant, removing it from your wallet in a public area, or sleeping without it tucked into your armpit, unauthorized use always remains a possibility. And when you really get down to it, most credit card companies will cover you for those purchases anyway.
But if you’re looking to seal up one more chance for fraud, SmartSwipe just started selling the readers in the U.S. for $100. Check out SmartSwipe for more information.
