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Singaporeans get hard token baked into credit card

What happens when you sit on it?

Two-factor authentication just got a whole lot more convenient for residents of Singapore, after Standard Chartered Bank's local outfit teamed with MasterCard to offer account-holders a credit card that is also a one-time-password-generating hard token.

MasterCard calls the device a 'Display Card' and says it includes “an embedded LCD display and touch-sensitive buttons”.

The hard token functionality seems not to have anything to do with the credit card, as Standard Chartered says it will be used with its online banking products when customers make “ higher-risk transactions such as payments or transfers above a certain amount, adding third party payees, or changing personal details.” If it behaves as other hard tokens do, punters enter a code with the keyboard, read the resulting one-time-password on the screen and then enter that code into the computing device they're using for online banking. Logon credentials for online banking service will still be required.

The card's been doing the rounds of Europe for a couple of years now, scoring a few wins with Turkish, Romanian and Belgian financial institutions.

MasterCard's DisplayCard includes a hard token one-time password generator

We're pretty sure a decent hard token would never produce the password '123456'

But the win at Standard Chartered, a British outfit with global footprint, gives the technology useful profile.

Nagra ID security, the Swiss company behind the token-in-a-card, insists the device will sit happily in one's wallet and offers a three year warranty, which we believe makes it safe to sit on. The card is, in all other ways, a completely conventional credit card and can be embossed, branded and carry holographic security devices like any other credit card. ®

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