This has existed under the name of HBCI in Germany for at least 10 years; using smartcards as security tokens. Strange that this should be marketed as an innovation.
HBCI has different security classes, the one with the LCD display to confirm the transaction is "class 3". Unfortunately class 3 readers are very expensive (about 100 €), so most people use either class 1 (rather insecure because the smartcard PIN is entered through the PC keyboard) or class 2 (PIN entry on card reader keypad but no LCD display).
In the end, the decisive question will be whether IBM will manage to make this product cheaper, that is 20 € max. Otherwise this product will fail as much as class 3 HBCI did.
Ah, and if they want a large, instant customer base in Germany they should make the device so that the existing HBCI cards can be inserted into it.
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This has existed under the name of HBCI in Germany for at least 10 years; using smartcards as security tokens. Strange that this should be marketed as an innovation.
HBCI has different security classes, the one with the LCD display to confirm the transaction is "class 3". Unfortunately class 3 readers are very expensive (about 100 €), so most people use either class 1 (rather insecure because the smartcard PIN is entered through the PC keyboard) or class 2 (PIN entry on card reader keypad but no LCD display).
In the end, the decisive question will be whether IBM will manage to make this product cheaper, that is 20 € max. Otherwise this product will fail as much as class 3 HBCI did.
Ah, and if they want a large, instant customer base in Germany they should make the device so that the existing HBCI cards can be inserted into it.