Fingerprint security for protecting EMV payment cards

EMV chip based payments cards have been used to combat fraudulent transactions such as counterfeit, lost and stolen cards. Despite of improved security measures payment cards are still not immune to some known threats and vulnerabilities such as card cloning, eavesdropping at POS and shoulder sniffing. A comprehensive study of the all possible threats and present security measures in payments cards is presented. This paper describes how fingerprint can be used for securing payment cards and further enhance the security of EMV environment. Comparison with presently practiced and implemented CHIP and PIN methods is shown elaborating the enhancing security and transaction time reduction by biometric cardholder authentication. Different methods of implementing fingerprint security in payment cards are provided. Major attacks on fingerprinting authentication are discussed and mitigation strategy is presented.