Thankfully the PhD student (who the banks have tried to have dismissed) has a professor who appreciates the work being done. Heaven forbid the banks fix their mistakes that allow users to complete transactions without knowing the PIN code. That might actually benefit customers. What's amusing is that thanks to the arrogance and laziness of the banks, more than just a few people now know the banks have this problem. Brilliant move, guys.
Cambridge computer scientists have become embroiled in angry exchanges with Britain's banks and credit card lenders, accusing them of bullying and trying to "censor" a PhD student who was exposing flaws in chip-and-pin machines.
A leading Cambridge academic has now written to bankers' representatives demanding that they stop pressing for the removal of a student's doctorate work from the web.
Professor Ross Anderson, from Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory, has previously researched glitches in chip-and-pin banking that allow withdrawals to be made from accounts without needing to know the holder's PIN. As part of his thesis work, one of his students, Omar Choudary, exposed how easy it was to make such a withdrawal.
