Last year, it often seemed that the topic of fraud was in the news more days than it wasn’t. With data breaches at many big name retailers, researchers began developing solutions that would protect merchants while making consumers feel safe when making purchases and the fix may just be quantum physics.
A group of researchers in the Netherlands have come up with a way that would prevent criminals from forging documents and gathering useful data from breaches like the ones at Home Depot and Target. Quantum physics, an area of study that studies tiny particles of matter and energy, could be used to, in essence, confuse criminals.
When cards or IDs are used in an ATM or other reader, light patterns are used to authenticate the card. Criminals can intercept these patterns, steal them, and use them to make fraudulent transactions. The new Quantum-Security Authentication would involve painting a small white strip of nano-particles on a card, driver’s license, or passport. When created a laser fires small light bundles into the strip. These bundles would bounce around among the nanoparticles and create a pattern that would be impossible to copy. When using the card, the ATM would send quantum light into the paint that would reflect a pattern that is impossible to decode by criminals.
Sound like something from the far off future? Maybe not. The technology is already available and is surprisingly cheap. There are some downsides, though, as stolen cards could still be used by criminals if companies don’t have proper identity verification procedures, like EVS’s Consumer Identity Verification in place. By utilizing solutions like IdentiFraud, retailers and consumers can feel safer knowing there is an additional line of defense before they become a vicim of fraud.
[Contributed by EVS Marketing]
