Square chief Jack Dorsey defends against attack

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter and the current chief executive of mobile payment company Square, has defended his business from an attack by competitor VeriFone.

The company’s chief, Douglas Bergeron, said in a YouTube video last week that Square users were at risk because of the nature of Square’s card reader, which is plugged into the audio port of an iPhone.

But Dorsey has responded, saying that Bergeron’s criticisms apply to all types of credit cards – anyone can take a card, skim the details, and then use it to commit fraud.

“Any technology – an encrypted card reader, phone camera, or plain old pen and paper – can be used to ‘skim’ or copy numbers from a credit card,” Dorsey said. “The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to – no technology required.”

Square is growing quickly. Recently the company announced it is handling over $US1 million in payments every day.