How Fed Ex and EntracTech can Contain Card Controversy

According to the friendly gentleman who works at my neighborhood FedEx Kinko’s, an ExpressPay card allows people using Kinko’s printers and copiers to pre-load cash onto a card and then pay for the printing and copying services using the little card readers positioned next to each machine. The readers also accept credit and debit cards, so most people do it that way. But if you don’t happen to have such a card, the ExpressPay cards make it possible for you to pay for the services with cash.

As it turns out, they also make it possible for people to steal money from Fed Ex Kinkos. A small security firm discovered a few days ago that the cards can be hacked. You can buy a card at the store for $1, go home, and add hundreds more to the card. You can either spend your fake money on copies, or you can ask the store to refund you the balance of your card.

The story first broke when two scientists at Secure Science posted a video on the Web demonstrating how the cards can be hacked.

Rather than regurgitate the same old rhetoric about how this is Kryptonite locks all over again for Fed Ex Kinkos and card technology manufacturer Entrac Enterprises - I’d like to offer these companies some support on how to unpickle this pickle.

First and foremost, both Kinkos and Entrac Technologies need to engage the blogosphere and the public in general.

They should get in touch with the bloggers that are spreading the story and put forth their side in clear, concise terms - including what they are doing to remedy the problem as quickly as possible.

Entrac, in particular, needs to carefully consider how this revelation affects all of its consumer products, and should consider launching a crisis blog to offer support and information to customers who are no doubt worried that products they’ve purchased from the company have similar flaws.

They should also be getting in touch with customers to tell them up front about the problem. One of the most important rules about doing business in this era of instantaneous communication is that it’s always better to own up to problems immediately and be transparent about efforts to fix the problem. The worst case scenario for this poor little company is to have a million angry messages first thing Monday morning.

I left them a message a couple of hours ago, but their offices were closed. I don’t expect a call back before Monday - or possibly not at all if they’re full steam ahead on fixing the problem. I wish both Fed Ex Kinkos and Entrac Technologies well as they deal with this challenge.