Hack turns Square into criminal tool

LAS VEGAS- Hackers showed Thursday how to turn mobile payment service Square into a convenient tool for criminals to pump cash from stolen credit card numbers.

Adam Laurie and Zac Franken of computer security firm Aperture Labs used a homemade software program and an easily bought iPad audio wire to trick Square in a way that could be a bonanza for crooks.

Laurie could type credit card numbers into his laptop, which converts to sound data sent to Square, where the transaction registers as if a real card were swiped in a dongle.

“Traditionally, the way you make money from stolen credit cards is sell the data to someone else or buy goods on it, then resell the goods and get the cash,” Laurie said while demonstrating the hack at a Black Hat computer security gathering in Las Vegas.

“This really takes the hassle out of it… I can put the money right in the account and it only costs me 2.75 percent.”

The percentage he cited was the fee charged by Square, which was co-founded by Jack Dorsey, a Silicon Valley star who helped create popular micro-blogging service Twitter.

Square markets a pocket-sized credit card reader that can be plugged into a smartphone to allow anyone to accept credit or debit card payments on the spot.