[4514] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Mondex is back ... (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Donald E. Eastlake 3rd)
Tue Apr 13 15:00:40 1999
To: cryptography@c2.net
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 13 Apr 1999 13:41:19 -0300."
<Pine.LNX.4.10.9904131331160.16937-100000@privacy.nb.ca>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 13:34:47 -0400
From: "Donald E. Eastlake 3rd" <dee3@torque.pothole.com>
I'm not aware of Mondex security being broken.
A big problem with smart cards is the chicken and egg problem. They
are quite successful in campus environments that can be saturated so
the most people/merchants have/take them. They have generally been
unsuccessful when deployed in a low percentage of the population.
Maybe they are just looking for a smaller market they can more easily
saturate.
Donald
From: M Taylor <mctaylor@privacy.nb.ca>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 13:41:19 -0300 (ADT)
To: cryptography@c2.net
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9904131331160.16937-100000@privacy.nb.ca>
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: owner-cryptography@c2.net
>
>Mondex has made a reappearance, this time to a extremely small market
>share in New Brunswick, Canada. I would expect less than 5,000 households
>to have Vibe in New Brunswick, which is a largely rural area (think:
>Maine). I wonder if they thought it best to test Mondex on a bunch of
>backwater folk who weren't likely to try and hack the smart cards.
>
>The US and previous Canadian deployments closed up suddenly last if I
>remember correctly. I do not recall if Differential Power Analysis was
>rumoured to influence this or not.
>
>--
>M Taylor mctaylor@ / privacy.nb.ca
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Subject: Mondex is back ...
>Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 12:59:23 -0400 (EDT)
>From: David Jones <djones@insight.cas.mcmaster.ca>
>
>>From Telemanagement:
>
>
>NBTEL AND ROYAL BANK TEST MONDEX:
>NBTel is partnering with Royal Bank in a smart card pilot project
>which uses Mondex e-cash for online purchases. Royal Bank customers
>who are users of NBTel's Vibe service will receive a Mondex card
>and a smart card reader which attaches to a PC.
>
>
>
