Safe money withdrawal from Automated Teller Machines (ATM) is possible via Google Glass – a wearable computer device, according to an IT expert.

 

 Dominique Schroder, assistant professor of cryptographic algorithms at the Saarland University in Germany, now proposes to combine Google Glass with cryptographic methods and techniques from automated image analysis to create the software system 'Ubic'.

 

 The customer first identifies himself to the cash machine. It uses the public key to encrypt the one-way personal identification number (PIN) and seals it additionally with a 'digital signature'.

 

 The result shows up on the screen as a black-and-white pattern, a so-called 'QR' code. The PIN that is hidden below is only visible for the identified wearer of the glasses. "Google Glass decrypts it and shows it in the wearer's field of vision. Although the process occurs in public, nobody is able to spy on the PIN," Schroder said.

 

 To spy on the PIN while it is being entered would also be useless since the PIN is re-generated each time the customer uses the cash machine. The digital signature guarantees that no assailant is able to intrude between the customer and the cash machine as during 'skimming' where the assailant can impersonate the customer.

 

 Only the customer is able to decrypt the encryption by the public key with his secret key. "As long as this is safely stored on the Google Glass, his money is also safe," said Schroder, who also does research at the Center for IT-Security, Privacy and Accountability in Germany.