‘Guessing Attack' Bypasses Credit Card Security in 6 Seconds

December is always a very busy time for banks and credit card companies, as we all scramble to purchase presents in time for the holidays. But it’s also a boon period for fraudsters who are trying to steal those precious card details. And now it seems, they can “guess hack” a credit card in mere seconds.

- Matthew Humphries

A team of researchers at Newcastle University discovered two weaknesses in the way online transactions are verified using the Visa payment system. Neither weakness is of much use alone, but when used together, an attacker can recover a credit card’s security information in as few as 6 seconds.

The two weaknesses being taking advantage of are as follows:

1. Online payment systems do not detect multiple invalid payment requests if they are performed across multiple websites. They also allow up to 20 attempts per card on each site.