VOA常速英语2014--英国研究人员开发信用卡更安全的加密措施

British Researchers Develop Safer Encryption for Credit Cards 英国研究人员开发信用卡更安全的加密措施

The recent news that data from 40 million credit and debit 1 cards used at Target department stores was hacked 2 has raised concerns about the security of plastic bank  cards. These contain financial information on a magnetic strip or a memory chip embedded 3 in the plastic.  A new method of storing encrypted data is in its early  stages, but the company developing the technology says some credit card companies are paying close attention.

Most credit and debit cards today use magnetic strips that hold the data about the owner's bank account and personal identification number called a PIN.

现今大部分信用卡和借记卡使用磁条加密保存持卡人的银行帐号和个人密码等数据。

Other credit cards hold the data in memory chips that communicate wirelessly 4 with card readers.

还有一些信用卡是将数据存入芯片，通过无线方式与读卡器相通。

Both systems are vulnerable.

然而这两种系统都可能遭破解。

Criminals can steal the data by hacking 5 into the banks' or retailers 6' computer systems or, as in the case of Target, tampering 7 with card readers in stores.

犯罪人能够通过进入银行或零售商的电脑系统，或者像目标百货商店一案那样，通过篡改店内读卡器盗取相关数据。

Now, scientists in Britain say they are developing a way to make encrypted data more secure by storing it in the plastic itself.

英国科学家表示他们正在研发将加密数据存入塑料本身以提高信用卡等银行卡的安全性。

Gordon Smith, a professor emeritus 8 at Warwick Manufacturing Group, at the University of Warwick, said researchers are manipulating a plastic molding machine to use the  colors of the card to encrypt data.

华威大学华威制造集团的戈登·史密斯教授称研究人员正在操作注塑机以通过塑料卡片的颜色加密数据：

“As it's making that plastic from a molten plastic into a solid component 9, we are moving the pigments 11 such that they form specific images,” he said.

“用这个机器将熔融塑料变成固态形式，我们调整让它们形成特定图像的颜料。”

The way the pigment 10 is configured inside the plastic ensures the security of the data.

用塑料卡内颜色的变化确保内存数据的安全。

When the card is passed through a special scanner, similar to magnetic strip readers, the software reads the embedded image containing the data.

当这张卡片通过一个类似磁条读卡器的特制扫描器时，软件会读取显示存储的相关数据的图像。

“When we first developed the images within the plastic, it looked as though it would just be an aesthetic 12 aspect to it,“我们最初开发塑料卡内的图像时，看上去就是让这个卡片漂亮了一些，but then we've realized that once we could make it covert 13, we could color the plastic so that the image was hidden, then it became something a lot more special," said  Smith.

后来我们意识到，可以把用这些颜色使图像隐藏，让它更特别。”史密斯说道。

Smith admits the system could be compromised if someone discovers how the card was made, though he said that's unlikely.

史密斯教授表示如果有人发现了卡片的制成方法，这个系统就可能被破坏，不过他说这种情况不大可能发生，The counterfeiter 14 would need to have access to an injection molding machine that costs more than $300,000.

因为伪造者需要有一台价值30多万美元的注塑机。

The patents for this new method are pending 15, and it has not been used commercially at all.

这种新方法的专利还在审批过程中，而且尚未用于商业用途。

Smith said some credit card companies, however, already have indicated they are interested in the technology.

但史密斯表示一些信用卡公司已经对这种技术表示出兴趣。