摘要 |
Systems for interchanging information, for example, obtaining cash from a terminal by use of a portable device such as a credit card are well-known but suffer from being vulnerable to fraud. In the invention a highly secure information interchange system is achieved by utilizing an intelligent card as the portable device which verifies that the terminal is a valid one and the terminal in turn verifies that the card is valid. Unauthorized users are screened out by means of a physical characteristic scan of the user such as a fingerprint which is then compared with comparable data stored on the portable device. If an invalid terminal attempts to communicate with the card, the card erases the data and programs from its memory. All programs and data in the terminal are stored in memory which loses its contents when power is interrupted, thus improving the security of the system by making unauthorized use of a terminal very difficult. The terminal can only be brought back up by authorized personnel with their own access portable devices. Both a system and a method are claimed.
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