Secure PIN transactions with photons
Criminals are very inventive when it comes to hacking payment terminals, bank cards, IDs or credit cards. Unfortunately for these malefactors, however, researchers at the University of Twente from research Institute MESA+ have now devised a solution that provides better protection to banks, businesses and consumers. UT awards researcher Bas Goorden a PhD for his work on developing a method to equip bank cards with secure 'keys' that are impossible to duplicate. He achieved this by cleverly combining the scattering of light with the quantum properties of photons. This UT research project was conducted in cooperation with Eindhoven University of Technology. It is in line with UT's Vision2020 strategy, which includes Safety and Security as a key area of scientific endeavour.