bitcoin as a secure channel for regular payments.

[louisLavery]

Talk Talk has just been hacked and user bank details likely spilled. If Talk Talk were to accept bitcoins how easy would it be to set up regular payments using the blockchain and how secure would such a system be?

[shorena]

Talk Talk has just been hacked and user bank details likely spilled. If Talk Talk were to accept bitcoins how easy would it be to set up regular payments using the blockchain and how secure would such a system be?

AFAIK there is next to no wallet software or service that offers regular automated payments. Its possible to write a script for an API or a full node directly though, but that would hardly be a common thing for users to set up. Essentially you would have to load up a balance with Talk talk from time to time and they deduct monthly fees from said balance.

If they were to switch to bitcoin, the following data would still have been stolen and would still be a problem in terms of identity theft.

Code:

- Names and addresses
- Dates of birth
- Email addresses
- Telephone numbers
- TalkTalk account information

and ofc Credit card and bank details for those that do not use bitcoin. On top of that, a security breach on their server handling the bitcoin payments (if they do it themselfs) could lead to lost bitcoin.

I think your question was refering identity theft mainly and as such bitcoin alone is not an option.

If you e.g. take the german mail provider posteo, they do not collect any personal information about their customers. They dont accept bitcoin either, but you can e.g. pay with cash via mail. Thus if they ever get hacked there is no risk of identity theft.

[Mickeyb]

Talk Talk has just been hacked and user bank details likely spilled. If Talk Talk were to accept bitcoins how easy would it be to set up regular payments using the blockchain and how secure would such a system be?

AFAIK there is next to no wallet software or service that offers regular automated payments. Its possible to write a script for an API or a full node directly though, but that would hardly be a common thing for users to set up. Essentially you would have to load up a balance with Talk talk from time to time and they deduct monthly fees from said balance.

If they were to switch to bitcoin, the following data would still have been stolen and would still be a problem in terms of identity theft.

Code:

- Names and addresses
- Dates of birth
- Email addresses
- Telephone numbers
- TalkTalk account information

and ofc Credit card and bank details for those that do not use bitcoin. On top of that, a security breach on their server handling the bitcoin payments (if they do it themselfs) could lead to lost bitcoin.

I think your question was refering identity theft mainly and as such bitcoin alone is not an option.

If you e.g. take the german mail provider posteo, they do not collect any personal information about their customers. They dont accept bitcoin either, but you can e.g. pay with cash via mail. Thus if they ever get hacked there is no risk of identity theft.

Personal information would be compromised as you said it, but at least if they were paying with Bitcoin, credit cards and bank details wouldn't be compromised. In the end that would save a lot of money to the banks, customers and Talk Talk.

For example, my previous bank in France was charging me 30 euros fee for every new credit card that had to be issued before an expiration date on the old one. This means if my credit card got compromised, I had to pay. Not to mention the damage that hackers can make to my bank account directly by using stolen credit card details.

Bitcoin would still make lives much easier.

[franky1]

Talk Talk has just been hacked and user bank details likely spilled. If Talk Talk were to accept bitcoins how easy would it be to set up regular payments using the blockchain and how secure would such a system be?

anyone can code a few lines, which send a payment at a certain date..
though i do not think it should be a standard feature of bitcoin-core, as that is just the main protocol client.. all the other apps and clients can easily add the feature

or even more simply, pay for a year contract upfront and not worry about missing payment dates.

[shorena]

-snip-
Personal information would be compromised as you said it, but at least if they were paying with Bitcoin, credit cards and bank details wouldn't be compromised. In the end that would save a lot of money to the banks, customers and Talk Talk.

For example, my previous bank in France was charging me 30 euros fee for every new credit card that had to be issued before an expiration date on the old one. This means if my credit card got compromised, I had to pay. Not to mention the damage that hackers can make to my bank account directly by using stolen credit card details.

Bitcoin would still make lives much easier.

True, but it also opens a new way to attack the customer. If your mail address is known as well as that you use bitcoin, you could be targeted with custom malware. Some of these phisihing mails are actually very good and hard to distinguish from the original, esp. after a breach.

E.g. paypal says "if we give your full name, you can be sure its legit", which is utter nonsense if you consider that PP is often tied to a mail address and in light of such a breach the information is easily available for the attackers. Many smart people I know fell for these kind of attacks, because the mail design was copied perfeclty, it had all the usual details and the attackers made the issue sound urgent. The attachment is (or at least looks like) a .pdf right, what could go wrong.

Dont get me wrong here I prefer more services accepting bitcoin payments, but it will not make the service miraculously secure or cause less issues for the customers in terms of a breach. The issues will just be different and it will take time to adjust to them.

The best defense against identity theft and the issues that follow it is very simple: dont gather information you do not must have to offer the service. Talk talk will certainly have to store your phone number if they sell you phone service, but do they need the name and (mail) address if you pay up front?

[Mickeyb]

-snip-
Personal information would be compromised as you said it, but at least if they were paying with Bitcoin, credit cards and bank details wouldn't be compromised. In the end that would save a lot of money to the banks, customers and Talk Talk.

For example, my previous bank in France was charging me 30 euros fee for every new credit card that had to be issued before an expiration date on the old one. This means if my credit card got compromised, I had to pay. Not to mention the damage that hackers can make to my bank account directly by using stolen credit card details.

Bitcoin would still make lives much easier.

True, but it also opens a new way to attack the customer. If your mail address is known as well as that you use bitcoin, you could be targeted with custom malware. Some of these phisihing mails are actually very good and hard to distinguish from the original, esp. after a breach.

E.g. paypal says "if we give your full name, you can be sure its legit", which is utter nonsense if you consider that PP is often tied to a mail address and in light of such a breach the information is easily available for the attackers. Many smart people I know fell for these kind of attacks, because the mail design was copied perfeclty, it had all the usual details and the attackers made the issue sound urgent. The attachment is (or at least looks like) a .pdf right, what could go wrong.

Dont get me wrong here I prefer more services accepting bitcoin payments, but it will not make the service miraculously secure or cause less issues for the customers in terms of a breach. The issues will just be different and it will take time to adjust to them.

The best defense against identity theft and the issues that follow it is very simple: dont gather information you do not must have to offer the service. Talk talk will certainly have to store your phone number if they sell you phone service, but do they need the name and (mail) address if you pay up front?

Yes I agree, if you don't store any sensitive informations then there is no sensitive informations to be stolen. But not everybody are thinking like this unfortunately and they keep collecting the info nevertheless.

You are also right about the malware. That's why I use my Trezor. So they can aim me through these malware attacks as much as they want, I am protected. But yes, not everyone are so security prone, I feel what you are saying.

[Small]

Talk Talk has just been hacked and user bank details likely spilled. If Talk Talk were to accept bitcoins how easy would it be to set up regular payments using the blockchain and how secure would such a system be?

Blockchain.info is not extremely secure for payment systems. It does cause inconvenience if it requires regular subscription based payments, users would have to make payment manually if they don't want to prepay it. Using a POS system would eliminate the need to coding a page for the payments.

[louisLavery]

Okay, I think I've learned something about the limitations of what can be done with the blockchain.

I don't know how Talk Talk works regards payments (I don't have a mobile. I do have bitcoins), but I guess there must be a reason why it needs to store customer card details.

Anyway, a simple system, if Talk Talk did accept bitcoins, would be for it to just store the user's wallet address against the phone number. That seems pretty secure to me. It could demand up front fees to cover expected use and warn the user if they were getting near their limit, so need to send more bitcoin. It puts the onus for security on the user, but then that's normal for bitcoin users anyway. Am I missing something?

[dothebeats]

Okay, I think I've learned something about the limitations of what can be done with the blockchain.

I don't know how Talk Talk works regards payments (I don't have a mobile. I do have bitcoins), but I guess there must be a reason why it needs to store customer card details.

Anyway, a simple system, if Talk Talk did accept bitcoins, would be for it to just store the user's wallet address against the phone number. That seems pretty secure to me. It could demand up front fees to cover expected use and warn the user if they were getting near their limit, so need to send more bitcoin. It puts the onus for security on the user, but then that's normal for bitcoin users anyway. Am I missing something?

It could be implemented, and it would only require the customer to just give an email address for notification and a bitcoin address for receiving/sending transactions. Alao, it would be much easier on Talk Talk's part to integrate bitcoin as it will lessen their work storing and sorting out names and information regarding different users.

[UserVVIP]

If you want a really secure gateway, I would reccomend going wih dash coin

[Small]

Okay, I think I've learned something about the limitations of what can be done with the blockchain.

I don't know how Talk Talk works regards payments (I don't have a mobile. I do have bitcoins), but I guess there must be a reason why it needs to store customer card details.

Anyway, a simple system, if Talk Talk did accept bitcoins, would be for it to just store the user's wallet address against the phone number. That seems pretty secure to me. It could demand up front fees to cover expected use and warn the user if they were getting near their limit, so need to send more bitcoin. It puts the onus for security on the user, but then that's normal for bitcoin users anyway. Am I missing something?

Many sites uses CC instead of Bitcoin as it's accepted widely. It would be impossible for any site to survive solely on using it as a payment method. Not that I support Paypal, but couldn't you implement it on the site and hackers would not be able to compromise user's info?

[designerusa]

Security will always be first concern in this age of virtual currencies. I really don't think its possible to find unhackable system. Just need to choose best option. So you should give less info about yourself around.

[dothebeats]

Security will always be first concern in this age of virtual currencies. I really don't think its possible to find unhackable system. Just need to choose best option. So you should give less info about yourself around.

Bitcoin already is a secure form of payment if you'd ask me. The thing that you'll need to worry aboyt us the platform that you use and the way how they handle sensitive information.

[Small]

Security will always be first concern in this age of virtual currencies. I really don't think its possible to find unhackable system. Just need to choose best option. So you should give less info about yourself around.

Hacks can occur if the server is not secure enough and SE can expose the server to the attacker. Bitcoin is irreversible and is also anonymous at the same time. It would be easier to steal than trackable fiats.

[mallard]

If you want a really secure gateway, I would reccomend going wih dash coin

I think DASH still has flaws, it's just like using a mixer or joinmarket.
You could look at Monero.