Emue Credit Card Fraud Beater

Stock Market Investing - Emue Smart Credit Card

Credit card fraud is on the increase, despite the claims that chip and pin cards were impregnable. Visa is now trialling a smart card for use over the phone or online - the Emue card, which incorporates a keypad, a computer and a screen, and which it is claimed represents a "revolution in authentication" and the fight against credit card fraud.

Emue Technologies was founded in Australia in 2006 and is a privately held company specializing in authentication solutions. Tohmatsu, the Australian Partnership of Deloitte Touche invested in Emue in 2006.

Why is it called Emue? Because Emue stands for End-to-End Mutual Authentication which is derived from the "principle (sic) unique differentiating feature" which is all suitably opaque, but would you trust an authentication company that can't spell 'principal'?

Despite my misgivings about the company's spelling prowess, Emue has won a number of prestigious awards, including the "International Card Manufacturers Association (ICMA) top honor “Judge’s Choice” Élan Award" and the "“Technical Achievement” Élan Award" which recognize the Emue Card’s "design innovation and technical achievement".

A BBC report explained that Visa is testing out the new Emue card, which generates a unique code each time you use it. The French though have had such a card for a while now, so I'm not sure just how innovative the Emue card is and how it differs from the French system.

You need a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to create the code, thereby preventing card-not-present fraud, i.e. Internet or phone purchases using a card, unless of course the crooks get hold of your PIN. The intention is for the Emue card to be used in online banking, telephone banking, online shopping and corporate access applications.

A disposable code is displayed on the card which has an integrated 8 digit alpha-numeric screen. In case you were wondering, the battery used for the display has a 3 year useful life.

The display is combined with your account number, 3 digit security code and magnetic strip.

There is currently a pilot study being carried out with Deloitte employees and Visa hopes to have a result of its trial by the end of 2009. So why is the BBC talking about it we wonder? Conspiracy theories anyone?


It is claimed that use of the card "mitigates" (i.e. reduces the severity of) keystroke logging, extended threats to OTP (theft of OTP device and keystroke logging combined), social engineering (consumer to enterprise), deployment of multiple devices, and consumer/employee inconvenience. With the widespread use of cheap laptop computers we certainly need a new card to help in the fight against credit card fraud.

Hopefully, if Emue is successful in reducing credit card fraud, this will save money for the credit card companies and this will allow them to do something about a problem which is far more serious than credit card fraud i.e. their outrageous credit card rates.

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