Researchers work to secure next generation chip-card payment technology

Current chip technology used for purchasing items via credit and debit cards in shops was developed in the mid-1990s. EMVCo, the standard body which manages, maintains and advances EMV Specifications, is in the process of designing the next generation payment technology to meet long-term industry requirements. The activity will establish a common, robust technology platform for supporting and contactless/mobile interfaces for both online and offline transactions. Dr Gaven Watson from Bristol's Department of Computer Science will be presenting a paper at the prestigious Association of Computing Machinery's Conference on Computer and Security (ACM-CCS) sharing the details of a study that validates the proposed protocol design to be used in future EMV chip cards. This protocol was developed by EMVCo and then published on its website as a request for comments (RFC). University of Bristol researchers responded and proved mathematically that the protocol meets the security goals that it was designed to achieve. The protocol sits at the heart of the new specification as it offers a key agreement system based on elliptic curve cryptography.