Poor security decisions expose payment terminals to mass fraud

From PC World: Some payment terminals can be hijacked to commit mass fraud against customers and merchants, researchers have found.

The terminals, used predominantly in Germany but also elsewhere in Europe, were designed without following best security principles, leaving them vulnerable to a number of attacks.

Researchers from Berlin-based Security Research Labs (SRLabs) investigated the security of payment terminals in Germany and were able to use them to steal payment card details and PIN numbers, hijack transactions and compromise merchant accounts. They plan to present their findings at the 32nd Chaos Communication Congress (32C3) later this month.

According to Karsten Nohl, the founder and chief scientist of SRLabs, most terminals in Germany use two communication protocols, ZVT and Poseidon, to talk with cash registers and payment processing providers respectively.

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