Why Credit Card Signatures are Security Theatre

Security theatre: actions taken to make people feel safer, that have a negligible-if-any effect on our actual security.

Case in point: credit card signatures. Does anyone honestly think their credit card company is somehow checking the hastily scribbled signatures at the grocery checkout against a database of all their other signatures on past purchases? That their cashier is checking what they wrote against the back of their card? That their waiter even cares whether the card is signed at all, as long as the transaction clears?

Europe recognized this a long time ago, moving over to a chip and pin system that actually does appear to help increase security. America has followed on the chip side of the equation, but the signature remains.

Let’s hope CNN Money is right, and we can all move over to security measures with value — with how common data breaches have become, we need all the help we can get.