Square has announced they will be launching a mobile phone chip credit card reader for $29. The current magnetic swipe reader for mobile phones is offered as a free item.
Chip technology in credit cards will be mandatory in 2015. The chips make the cards more difficult to clone and have been successful in reducing fraud outside of the U.S.
VentureBeat notes in their article that Square will be supporting chip and signature, not chip and pin transactions, but this may merely be in the initial stages.
Chip and Pin is the most secure of these new technologies. It requires something you have…the credit card, and something you know…the Pin. Chip and Signature makes the card harder to duplicate, but as I rarely see people checking signatures now, which they are supposed to do, it eliminates the second factor and makes it less secure than otherwise.
So, despite the push for these new cards, the credit card industry is weakening the effort and will hopefully move to the more secure technology later on.
In the meantime though, Square is ahead of the curve by offering this in an inexpensive manner as part of their continued attempts to expand their presence as a payment processor.
(Via Venturebeat)