The banking industry has dismissed claims by two students they had designed a computer programme which could crack bank security codes.
Michael Bond and Richard Clayton said using a combination of software developed by Mr Bond and hardware costing less than £750 developed by Mr Clayton, it was possible to find the secret key from the crypto-processor used to scramble customer PINs.
The pair said they planned to put details of how to crack the systems on the internet in a bid to force banks to improve their security.
But Richard Tyson-Davies, director of public affairs at the Association for Payment Clearing Services, said the pair were too late.
He said: "This is a fascinating piece of work but where it falls down is the banks have moved on and nowadays PINs are produced randomly and not in relation to an account number.
"It won't work now in the UK."
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