May 19th, 2005
Business Opportunity of the moment
I see this in today’s Wall Street Journal:
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., the nation’s largest credit-card issuer, plans to announce today that it will issue millions of new credit cards that can be waved or held in front of a special reader, as well as swiped through a traditional terminal. The big financial-services firm, which has more than 90 million credit cards in circulation, is the first bank to issue Visa- and MasterCard-branded cards with the technology, which it calls “blink.”
Because your money will be gone in a blink of an eye of course.
So two predictions. First, some hackers will figure out how to install card readers in public places that scan your card as you walk by or better yet as you lean up against something. Second, that their will be a tremendous amount of press around the first incident.
So, the Business Opportunity of the day? Shielded wallets! A little mylar embedded in the fabric or leather of a wallet or purse will block the RF signals. Go ahead, run with it.
Richard Stiennon is an industry consultant. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
