Mag-stripe readers

iPhone mag-stripe reader stalled article tells that Square, the expected to be breakthrough business launched by twitter-founder Jack Dorsey, won’t be shipping as scheduled. Interesting is that Square was just a magnetic-stripe reader, and that there were a dozen credit card-processing applications on the iPhone. Only this time, it comes with a plastic lump that reads the card number by taking advantage of a feature banks have been trying to phase out for a decade or two. That fact didn’t stop venture capitalists pouring $10m into the company. According to article much of the invested money has been spent refining the hardware, but the real complexity has been underwriting the security of a system.

square_reader

I expect that this iPhone mag-stripe card reader hardware is pretty simple. It seem to plug to the external mic connector of the iPhone, so I quess the hardware could be just the read head and some software for decoding the signal from card stripe. The magnetic stripe read head is pretty similar to compact cassette tape player read/write head. The head from old tape deck work quite OK for this but is not as good as a reading head specifically designed for magnetic stripe reading. The signal level from from compact cassette tape deck read head is usually pretty close to microphone level.

Magnetic Stripe Reading web page shows how to read magnetic stripe using using a computer sound card and magnetic head from cassette deck. The article text as it appears in the Spring 2005 issue of 2600 Magazine. The output of the magnetic head is directly to the mic input of a sound card and a simple Linux software does the decoding.

orig-1t

Since all the data obtained from the reader itself is audio, the device can be even interfaced to a digital audio recording device. Later, you’d view and edit the captured audio file, saving the clean waveform to a standard .wav file to be analyzed with software. At least in theory this works and Magnetic Stripe Reading article says that it works in practice.

When playing with the magnetic stripes of credit cards is nowadays that easy, is no wonder that banks are trying to get rid of that old technology for a safer smartcard technology.

32 Comments

  1. Marantz Model 5030 Stereo Cassette Deck Vintage | Car Stereo Parts says:

    [...] Mag-stripe readers « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog [...]

    Reply
  2. Jane says:

    I keep reading about people complaining, you are only going to get out of school what you put into it. I see guys and girls when i went to school expecting hand outs. A silver spoon is not reality. I went to PAVI and am doing well. Living a dream. Check it out! Great school.

    Reply
  3. Jimmie says:

    Really? Well .. maybe! :P .. take care.

    Reply
  4. Kelly Renneker says:

    Hello, superb article.

    Reply
  5. Lily Hittner says:

    Excelente contenido. Gracias por publicar.

    Reply
  6. Manual Valcin says:

    I was simply browsing for relevant blog posts with regard to my project research and My partner and i happened to stumble upon yours. Many thanks for this practical material!

    Reply
  7. Audio Recoridng School says:

    Great site, I will bookmark this. Thanks.

    Reply
  8. Recording Schools says:

    Thanks for the advice. I was looking into PAVI. Check it out!

    Reply
  9. Vancouver Recording School says:

    I went to school at PAVI for audio recording, I now work in the industry. Going to school really helps place you better in the industry.

    Reply
  10. Audio Engineering says:

    Great site, I will bookmark this. Thanks.

    Reply
  11. Vancouver Recording Schools says:

    Really? Well .. maybe! :P .. take care.

    Reply
  12. Audio Recoridng School says:

    I keep reading about people complaining, you are only going to get out of school what you put into it. I see guys and girls when i went to school expecting hand outs. A silver spoon is not reality. I went to PAVI and am doing well. Living a dream. Check it out! Great school.

    Reply
  13. Audio Recording says:

    WOW! great post! I’m looking into going to audio recording school at PAVI. Check it out. I would like to hear your advice on this school.

    Reply
  14. tomi says:

    Nothing else that they are constantly pushing not so great comments to my blog… I am starting to consider them as spammers….
    This is not the right way to advertise a school I think…

    Reply
  15. Jon Brink says:

    Are there too many audio shows out there? Or are there not enough?

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Shmoocon Demo Shows Easy, Wireless Credit Card Fraud
    http://it.slashdot.org/story/12/01/30/177220/shmoocon-demo-shows-easy-wireless-credit-card-fraud

    “[Security researcher Kristin] Paget aimed to indisputably prove what hackers have long known and the payment card industry has repeatedly downplayed and denied: That RFID-enabled credit card data can be easily, cheaply, and undetectably stolen and used for fraudulent transactions.

    With a Vivotech RFID credit card reader she bought on eBay for $50, Paget wirelessly read a volunteer’s credit card onstage and obtained the card’s number and expiration date, along with the one-time CVV number used by contactless cards to authenticate payments. A second later, she used a $300 card-magnetizing tool to encode that data onto a blank card.

    Hacker’s Demo Shows How Easily Credit Cards Can Be Read Through Clothes And Wallets
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/01/30/hackers-demo-shows-how-easily-credit-cards-can-be-read-through-clothes-and-wallets/

    As she showed on a Washington D.C. stage Saturday, she can read all the data she needs to make a fraudulent transaction off that card with just a few hundred dollars worth of equipment, and do it invisibly through your wallet, purse, or pocket.

    RFID-enabled credit card data can be easily, cheaply, and undetectably stolen and used for fraudulent transactions

    Reply
  17. best retinol products says:

    There are definitely a few more details to take into consideration, but thanks for sharing this information.

    Reply
  18. canards vibrants says:

    fantastic site, All of us unquestionably enjoy this great site, keep on it

    Reply
  19. Credit card (in)security issues « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog says:

    [...] machine), which reads the magnetic strip as the user unknowingly passes their card through it. Technology needed to read the contents of the magnetic strip is pretty simple. Usually a miniature camera or fake keypad over original is used to read the user’s PIN at the [...]

    Reply
  20. Nita Lacombe says:

    Share spiders are generally closing along with minor failures after power businesses made it simpler for move the market industry lower. That Dow Jones conventional ordinary ended this weeks time lower, its 3 rd dropping 7 days this holiday season.

    Reply
  21. Delphia Pellegren says:

    I intended to create you a bit of observation in order to give thanks as before just for the incredible solutions you have contributed at this time. It is certainly wonderfully open-handed of you to supply easily just what a lot of people would’ve made available for an e-book to end up making some profit on their own, even more so seeing that you could have done it in case you considered necessary. Those things additionally served like a fantastic way to be sure that some people have a similar eagerness really like mine to know a little more pertaining to this condition. I think there are a lot more fun instances up front for individuals that examine your blog post.

    Reply
  22. health blog wall street journal says:

    Hello my friend! I want to say that this article is awesome, great written and come with almost all important infos. I¡¦d like to look extra posts like this .

    Reply
  23. Teachers Day Quotes and sayings says:

    Excellent goods from you, man. I have understand your stuff previous to and you’re just too excellent. I actually like what you’ve acquired here, certainly like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it. You make it enjoyable and you still take care of to keep it smart. I cant wait to read far more from you. This is really a great web site.

    Reply
  24. Jim Raucci says:

    It is appropriate time to make some plans for the future and it’s time to be happy. I’ve learn this post and if I may I desire to suggest you some attention-grabbing things or advice. Perhaps you can write next articles referring to this article. I wish to learn more things approximately it!|

    Reply
  25. babel roma says:

    Great paintings! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on Google for not positioning this publish upper! Come on over and discuss with my web site . Thanks =)

    Reply
  26. Marcus Braine says:

    Hey I am so happy I found your blog page, I really found you by mistake, while I was searching on Yahoo for something else, Anyways I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a marvelous post and a all round interesting blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have book-marked it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read much more, Please do keep up the awesome work.Raleigh Roofing, 3221 Durham Dr., #101-C, Raleigh, NC 27603 – (919) 701-6300

    Reply
  27. Buy Laptops UK says:

    I love what you guys are up too. This kind of clever work and reporting! Keep up the amazing works guys I’ve included you guys to blogroll.

    Reply
  28. SuzannJSchut says:

    you’re truly a just right webmaster. The web
    site loading velocity is amazing. It seems that you’re doing any
    distinctive trick. Also, The contents are masterwork.

    you’ve done a wonderful activity on this topic!

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    https://hackaday.com/2024/08/21/farewell-magnetic-stripe/

    For decades, the magnetic stripe has been ubiquitous on everything from credit cards to tickets to ID badges. But the BBC reports — unsurprisingly — that the mag stripe’s days are numbered. Between smartphones, QR codes, and RFID, there’s just less demand for the venerable technology.

    IBM invented the stripe back in the early 1960s. The engineer responsible, [Forrest Parry], was also involved in developing the UPC code. While working on a secure ID for the CIA, his wife suggested using an iron to melt a strip of magnetic tape onto the card. The rest is history.

    Is this the end for the magnetic stripe?
    https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c51yd4j4lnvo

    As he slipped the key card into the reader on his hotel room door and tried the handle – to no avail – he realised what he had done.

    For years, Steven Murdoch, a security researcher at University College London, had taken care not to put tickets or cards with magnetic stripes in his pocket next to his smartphone. This is because the magnets in smartphones are sometimes strong enough to wipe the data on magnetic stripes.

    But so-called magstripe hotel key cards are rare these days, increasingly superseded by contactless cards with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips inside them.

    As such, during his hotel visit in January this year, Prof Murdoch forgot to take precautions and, he concludes, wiped his room key – having used it only once.

    “I should have known better, this is the sort of thing I do know about,” he says. Upon arriving back at reception, he realised he was not alone.

    “There was a queue of people with exactly the same problem as me,” he recalls.

    The magnetic stripe was invented by an IBM engineer in the 1960s – his wife was instrumental in the process as it was she who suggested melting a strip of magnetic tape onto a card using a clothes iron.

    In the decades since, magstripes have been used on bank cards, rail tickets, IDs and even cards containing medical information, to set up hospital machines.

    But that murky brown strip of plastic usually made with polluting heavy metals may not be around for much longer.

    From this year onwards, for instance, Mastercard will not require banks to put a magnetic stripe on debit and credit cards.

    For ticketing, new technologies including printable barcodes and reusable contactless cards are considered more environmentally friendly and potentially more convenient.

    You also can’t wipe them by accidentally putting them too close to your iPhone.

    Are there any benefits to keeping magstripe cards or tokens around?

    “No,” says Sue Walnut, product director for intelligent transportation systems at Vix Technology, bluntly.

    She argues there are now so many different ways of validating a rail ticket – for example, QR codes presented on phone screens, tickets printed at home, prepaid contactless cards – that there is less need to retain magstripe technology than ever before.

    But magstripe tickets and entry cards do slot conveniently into credit card holders in wallets and purses. The new paper tickets being trialled by Northern and other rail firms are larger. “They are a bit unwieldy and cumbersome,” says Ms Walnut.

    Magstripe has hung around for so long partly because it is relatively cheap and the specifications for reading machines were put in place many decades ago, says Stephen Cranfield at Barnes International, which makes equipment for magnetic stripe testing.

    “If you took your card today and used it in a magstripe reader from 1970, it would still be able to read it,” he says.

    His firm has worked on a variety of systems – including one designed to allow kidney failure patients to use a magstripe card for setting up their dialysis machine.

    Despite the ubiquity of dark brown or black magstripes, they can actually come in a whole range of colours. “It’s quite popular in China, actually – gold stripes,” explains Mr Cranfield.

    But now that US banks are finally switching to chip and PIN cards, the market for magstripe is clearly dwindling.

    Prof Murdoch says although magstripe technology is extremely well established, it is “inevitable” that it will gradually disappear.

    Sometimes, members of the public contact Prof Murdoch when they are having trouble proving to their bank that they have been the victim of fraud.

    “If the transaction was done by magstripe, then it’s a very easy argument to say someone copied it,” says Prof Murdoch as he points out the irony. “But if the transaction was one of the more secure methods – then it’s much harder.”

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Jimmie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*