CAPKs: The Cryptographic Trust Anchors Behind Every EMV Transaction
Every card-present transaction begins with a question the terminal must answer before anything else: is this card genuine?
6 pages
Cryptography
Why EMV Chip Cards Resist Cloning: The ARQC Mechanism Explained
Every chip card generates a unique cryptographic proof each time you tap or insert it. That proof is why cloning a chip card’s transaction capability is effectively impossible — and why the …
Stochastic, Entropy & AI: From Thermodynamics to Information Theory to Modern Machine Learning
I was listening to a podcast the other day about AI and the mathematics behind it — especially stochastic processes, entropy, and probability — and it immediately drew me in. With a background in …
PIN Translation: Bridging Cryptographic Worlds Inside the HSM
When a cardholder enters their PIN at a modern SmartPOS terminal, something subtle but critical happens behind the scenes. The terminal encrypts that PIN using AES and formats it according to ISO 9564 …
EMV Cryptograms: How ARQC Prevents Fraud
Every time you tap or insert a chip card, the card generates a unique cryptogram — a cryptographic proof that this specific transaction is legitimate and hasn’t been seen before. This single …
RSA Algorithm: Theory and Implementation
Author: Vincent Bevia, MSc Computer Science — University of Liverpool Introduction RSA (Rivest–Shamir–Adleman) is one of the first public-key cryptosystems and is widely used for secure data …