Chip-and-PIN card vulnerability demonstrated

Source: ZDNet Australia

Security researchers from Cambridge University have demonstrated a "chess grandmaster attack" against chip-and-PIN cards. The cards can't be duplicated using any known technique, and are thus considered highly secure, but the payment system is still vulnerable to attack from a hostile or compromised card-reader terminal. Such an attack would take serious planning and execution on the part of criminals, putting it in the domain of serious organised crime rather than opportunistic theft.