Richard's Kingdom

The war on terror is over. We lost. The tell-tale signs are everywhere. You can see them in our buildings and our transport networks. You can read them in your morning paper. You can hear them echoing down the corridors of Whitehall. Galvanised by fear whipped up by the media, to which our politicians pander [...]

Credit-card companies claim their 3D-Secure system – branded as Verified by Visa and Mastercard SecureCode – provides an extra layer of security against online fraud. Back in November I suggested that, rather than protecting consumers, the extra security appears to benefit banks and merchants by pushing fraud liability onto card-holders. Now Ross Anderson and Steven [...]

Back in April I wrote about problems with the credit-industry password scheme Verified by Visa. At the time I compared it to so-called phishing scams – fraud committed by tricking unwary email users into handing over their passwords, bank account details or credit-card numbers, then ordering goods or transfering cash from their accounts. It turns [...]

Last week reports surfaced that GCHQ – the UK signals intelligence agency – is developing the type of Internet spying capability Jacquie Smith had previously announced would not be built by the Home Office. It would be easy to infer a cynical deception by the government, however GCHQ issued a denial, stating that – unlike [...]

As far as phishing schemes go they don’t come better than Verified by Visa. Fortunately it isn’t actually a scam. However it so closely resembles the perfect online con that this detail makes little practical difference. What’s more it’s turning customers away from merchants who employ the system. If you use a credit card online [...]