Well since it was an article in American Banker, yeah, I'd say that he was referring to the US. Also, thanks for the down vote based on hard facts: "probably h

Well since it was an article in American Banker, yeah, I'd say that he was referring to the US. Also, thanks for the down vote based on hard facts: "probably hundreds of millions", "kinda safer". http://www.techspot.com/news/51037-trojan-bypasses-two-factor-authentication-steals-465-million.html http://www.techspot.com/news/51037-trojan-bypasses-two-facto... An identity card is not a commerce solution -- there is no cost/benefit analysis for governments, they just decide which vendors should get lots of money (I know, I was one of them! Thanks governments!) We did this in the US and now there are no fake passports here in the US, we win! Ooops... http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hackers_clone_r.html http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hackers_clone_... A card reader not hooked to the computer --- nah ,that can't be hacked: http://media.blackhat.com/bh-us-12/Briefings/C_Miller/BH_US_12_Miller_NFC_attack_surface_WP.pdf http://media.blackhat.com/bh-us-12/Briefings/C_Miller/BH_US_... smart card PINs, those can't be hacked: http://blogs.gartner.com/mark-diodati/2012/01/15/deja-vu-%E2%80%93-the-sykipot-attack-on-smart-cards/ http://blogs.gartner.com/mark-diodati/2012/01/15/deja-vu-%E2... For a thoughtful presentation of both sides, try: http://www.kansascityfed.org/PUBLICAT/econrev/pdf/3q08sullivan.pdf http://www.kansascityfed.org/PUBLICAT/econrev/pdf/3q08sulliv... I think you'll see that it concludes much the same thing as I mentioned the banks (here in the US anyway) conclude: the costs are not worth the theoretical "kinda safer" gains in security. Security is a nuanced, no-one-solution-fits-all, dynamic, evolving systems engineering problem. The adversaries are smart, but more importantly have common sense (unlike governments and consumers) - they will exploit weaknesses in the weakest link. Replace passwords with smart cards, no problem - they will go after the next link. The (US and EU) banks know this -- they all employ layered fraud and security measures --- despite consumers who may have unquestioning faith in the perfect security of smart cards. And when you come back in 5 years and payment cards are still NOT being used in the mainstream (US anyway where cost vs. benefit is important), please have the courtesy to up vote.