Your New Smart Card's Dirty Little Secret: It Won't Stop Hackers

If you haven't yet received a new credit card, the kind with a computer chip visibly embedded in it, you soon will. Card issuers are quickly distributing them to curb credit card fraud. The little integrated circuit on the front, whose encryption capability makes it nearly impossible to copy or forge the card, is a welcome improvement. Since this redesign of the traditional credit card comes in the wake of massive data breaches at Target and Home Depot, you might think it will prevent breaches like those.