4 ms·
biggest hack being credit card reading dongles
by kirykl 10y ago
biggest hack being credit card reading dongles
- rplst8 10y agoThis is likely why Apple is so interested in killing the 3.5 mm jack. They want a cut of Square's business.
- mschuster91 10y agoComms can always be done over bluetooth or wifi. In fact, I don't get why Square didn't go this path - I know that I would break the connectors every other day.
- xemdetia 10y agoIt makes a whole lot more sense from a testing and EMF perspective. A connector is generally much more predictable than wireless- and the user interface is a lot easier to understand and troubleshoot by an everyday person. Getting bluetooth to pair or setting a phone into a hotspot and then joining the device to the wifi network would be a support call nightmare. I think it makes infinitely more sense to give you something you plug in. Attackers can't hijack the signal in interesting ways, and nearly anyone who would use a Square device would be familiar with how to plug things into a 3.5mm jack.
- mschuster91 10y ago> Getting bluetooth to pair or setting a phone into a hotspot and then joining the device to the wifi network would be a support call nightmare. People are used to pair Bluetooth devices these days - cars, wireless headphones, keyboards, mice... it's incredibly easy. As for Wifi setup, Edimax does something really clever in their Wifi smart plugs - upon first powerup, the device creates an AP. The phone app connects to this IP, transmits the Wifi connection details and then disconnects.
- artimaeis 10y agoThe new Square reader which supports contact-less payments uses Bluetooth - so they're moving in the right direction at least.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]