Computer Weekly readers' give their views on the week's
news
The real question behind chip and Pin
technology
Further to your article on chip and Pin fraud, (Computer Weekly,
13 June) the chip system being used in the UK is, unlike your
article states, a global standard; it is a system call EMV as it
was introduced by Europay, MasterCard and Visa.
Your article correctly states that the EMV standard has not yet
been taken up by the US as well as quite a few other countries, but
it will. Only when every terminal in the world processes chips will
we be able to be confident about not having our bank card copied
and used illegally.
Visa and MasterCard are effectively forcing each country to
implement the EMV chip standard by announcing dates for each
country, after which it will be the retailer who will pay for any
fraud. Currently the issuer still pays the merchant for fraudulent
transactions but that is changing.
The UK should be applauded as being an early adopter of this new
standard, but you should be asking Visa and MasterCard why they are
not forcing the US to implement chip technology the way that they
are forcing other countries.
Colin Davis
Magnetic strip has to be phased out to beat
fraud
Lindsay Clark’s article (Computer Weekly, 13 June) highlighted
the need for firms to better educate their staff on the threat of
card fraud and align their business processes to prevent attacks.
Equally, it identified the inherent weaknesses of the magnetic
strip, which is still retained on the back of new chip and Pin
cards. Let’s not forget that the magnetic strip’s vulnerability to
fraud, was the main rationale for the introduction of chip and
Pin.
The well documented attack suffered by Shell highlights the need
for the magnetic strip to be phased out – this can only be achieved
through the global acceleration of chip and Pin adoption – a
technology that has proved itself to be successful in stopping
fraud levels escalating.
However, fighting card fraud effectively cannot just be about
technology; it is also about the security of processes and people.
It is imperative, therefore, that organisations comply with the
Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standard, which was set up to
fight fraud at the point of sale and across a multi-channel
retailing environment. Organisations have to continually invest in
improving their security in order to ensure they are always one
step ahead of the bad guys.
Mark McMurtrie, The Logic Group
Why Microsoft can afford to play with the
Xbox
Do the commentators in your article “Business focus sought from
Gates’ successors” who talk about “business” and “IT solutions”
really believe that a company with the size and resource of
Microsoft cannot afford a couple of teams devoted to search
technology and a few hundred engineers working on Xbox without
harming its business software in the process.
Dan Coleman
Multisourcing needs structured governance
Paul Williams has documented the increasing crisis of IT
governance being seen as “non-strategic” by non-technical
management (Computer Weekly, 13 June).
An additional point worth adding is the growth of multisourcing.
As firms see increasing benefit in the use of a partner ecosystem,
rather than single supplier outsourcing, supplier management is
becoming more complex and needs a structured system of governance
to function, taking into account suppliers, internal departments,
and the end customer.
Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, National Outsourcing
Association
Credit where it’s due for world’s first
spreadsheet
Ray Ozzie wrote the first spreadsheet? (Computer Weekly, 20
June). I thought that honour went to Dan Bricklin. While Ray Ozzie
did indeed work for VisiCalc (Bricklin’s company), his official
blog at msn detailing his work history merely states that while
there he ported Visicalc to the Z80. Hardly on a par with writing
the original program itself. Ozzie is famous for his involvement
with Notes Groupware, not spreadsheets.
Anthony Youngman
Lack of TV licence could mean World Cup
woes
One thing that was not mentioned in the letters about the
effects of staff watching World Cup games (Computer Weekly, 13
June), was that the business premises that do allow staff to watch
matches could be facing fines anyway, if the business does not own
a TV licence. According to the BBC news site, A TV licence is
required for any device that is “installed or used” for receiving
television broadcasts.
Neil Deighan
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