Poor print exposing Pin numbers

Bright lights and easy to use software helped University of Cambridge researchers defeat tamper-proofing on letters telling people their new Pin.

Banks and many other organisations use secure stationery to give customers new pins or passwords that is designed to make it obvious if the envelope has been opened and the number or word has been read by someone else.

Many were defeated using bright lights shone at an angle on to the paper. Other Pins could be read by scanning the letter and then adjusting some of the image qualities in popular programs such as GIMP, Adobe Photoshop and Paintshop Pro.