One for the tinfoil hat brigade

[Gruntfuttock]

Here, via the ever excellent Bruce Schneier blog, is a paper from my alma mater describing several ways in which credit/payment card security is weak and can be hacked.

If you are inclined to worry about these things then you'd better put an extra layer of foil on that hat!

[jimbo]

I used to work for a major uk bank installing and configuring credit card terminals.
I still have a test credit card with no limit somewhere, Very easy to abuse if you were so inclined to do so.

[Gruntfuttock]

Yes - I've had access to test credit cards in my past as well. It's clear to me that the reason that transaction charges to merchants and interest charges to stupid users are so high is that the rate of abuse of electronic payment systems is huge!