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Concern Troll is Concerned: Verifone vs Square

9 March 2011

Suppose a major manufacturer of computer keyboards announced a very serious security problem with a specific competitor’s keyboard: Someone could plug this keyboard into a computer running a malicious app, and cause a user to enter sensitive information. Thus, the manufacturer demands that their competitor recall all of these “insecure” keyboards.

Anyone with the technical sense of a rock would pause for a moment, and then burst out in laughter at the utter absurdity of this proclamation. No one would ever attempt to make such a ludicrous and obviously self-serving claim, would they?

Verifone would. Verifone is very very concerned about Square’s iPhone card scanner, because someone could run a malicious app on the iPhone and collect card data using it. The fact that Square just announced new pricing undercutting Verifone’s is, of course, completely coincidental.

Where to begin?

In short, Verifone is bashing a competitor because the competitor’s pricing is more consumer-friendly than Verifone’s. Their technical arguments are nonsense, and they should be ashamed of launching a FUD campaign that plays on credit card security paranoia.

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