Router rush for retailers

UK retailers installing chip-and-PIN card payment systems - which replace signatures with a four-digit PIN in order to verify payments - may be forced to upgrade their network routers.

Older routers cannot process the larger data packets required to transmit credit-card transactions to local banks for authorisation, according to experts. The necessary extra hardware will create an expense for retailers rushing to implement chip-and-PIN systems before the 1 January 2005 deadline, after which retailers rather than card issuers become liable for fraudulent credit-card transactions.

"A standard Apacs 30 credit-card transaction used to have a maximum size of 128 bytes but with chip-and-PIN that goes up to a minimum of 256 bytes," said Jez Wilcox, senior network consultant at network equipment provider Allied Telesyn. "That extra data that needs to be put in requires extra code and you can't do that with [older] Cisco and 3Com routers used in many retail locations."

High-street firms with a lot of shops nationwide are likely to face the biggest problems and may need to change their routers or authorisation methods.