What is Jitter?
A jitter is a way to stop skimming that changes the speed or motion of the card as it is slid or pulled into an ATM or card reader. The magnetic strip is read differently. Any data copied by a card skimmer will not be visible or valuable because of Jitter.
BREAKING DOWN Jitter
One way thieves can get a credit or debit card number is by stealing the card. Jitter can help stop this. Someone could put in a device that copies the information that goes through the credit or debit card reader or ATM to copy the number or “skim” it. People then use these numbers to make fake orders.
Illegal card readers will have difficulty copying credit and debit card numbers with jitter technology. You’re more likely to find it in ATMs and other machines that “draw in” a credit or debit card to scan. It’s less likely to be on machines that let a person swipe their card.
It’s a pause during the card draw that causes the jitter. In other words, when you put your card into an ATM, the machine doesn’t always take it in at the same speed. Instead, it may stop and start scanning the card. To properly read the numbers on many devices, you need to swipe them smoothly. The Jitter technology doesn’t work well with tools where a person has to put in a credit or debit card physically. Newer ATMs can also have this swipe option, but older ones tend to have it more often.
It’s impossible to trick a credit card skimmer with Jitter completely, but it can help make reading some cards harder for that kind of device.
When you swipe a credit card, it might not read because of jitter technology. This technology can cause both actual card readers and card skimmers to be ineffective.
How Well Jitter Works in a Security World That Changes Quickly
It has been around for more than ten years, but it’s not as good at keeping banking information safe as it used to be. A post on BankInfoSecurity 2012 called “3 Reasons Skimmers Are Winning” criticized the technology’s power. This was more than five years ago.
The site says that the anti-skimming feature known as jitter, which prevents card details from being copied by using a stop-start or jitter motion at the card reader, is a standard feature, but someone has defeated it.
“Major ATM makers like NCR Corp., Diebold, Fujitsu, and Wincor Nixdorf AG brought jitter to the U.S. market more than seven years ago, and it is still the best way for banks to stop skimming.” It only works on ATMs with motorized card readers, which pull the card in, read the mag-stripe data, and then push the card out. Users must physically enter and remove the card from machines with dip readers for the technology to work.
