Posted on 07/11/2009 6:03:57 PM PDT by Crimson Elephant
Mythbusters guys not allowed to demonstrate what the RFID chips are doing.
That’s interesting.
Interesting.
/johnny
BUMP!
Good find.
RFID ain’t rocket science. All it is at its heart is using EM radiative power to induce energy into a system, and then the system turns around and gives a coded reply.
That it happens with very low voltages isn’t such a big thing, it’s that things are being put together in volume, repeatability, and with supporting infrastructures. All of those put together make it the powerful solution or scary situation that RFID is.
That’s actually kinda’ scary.
Credit card companies wouldn’t let them... why not?
;^)
Just got my RFID “ORCA Card” yesterday.
It's an all-in-one, self-debiting, self-funding pass card for all public transportation in the Seattle metro area.
I even get an instant online record of every transaction.
If my funding Visa Card suddenly goes nuclear, I'll know where the security breach came from.
I have often wondered why someone couldn’t just capture credit card data from a credit card with a chip; simply by just walking closely to someone.
They would just need the thing that reads the chip in the credit card in their hand.
Of course with all new technology, it's a conspiracy to control our lives. < / s>
Basically, the data (Name, account number, etc.) is not encrypted and it's easy for a third party to query the card without physical contact. They can extract the info while it's still in your wallet.
I remember reading about a case in Europe where someone was able to insert a credit card shaped device into an ATM slot and capture the information of whoever had just used the ATM.
It sounds a little farfetched to me unless the ATM had kept that information in memory which I don’t believe they do.
That’s weak. The credit card companies are content to depend on security through obscurity. Mythbusters or not, the details of how the system works will get into the hands of the bad guys. The card companies will suffer losses as a result, but these are built into the overall business model and will amount to only a few basis points.
What they should do is junk the cards and build a payment system that will run in your mobile handset. To make a payment, you would establish a three-way conversation between your handset, the bank, and the merchant, with the merchant’s POS terminal providing connectivity to your handset via Bluetooth and to the bank over the internet. Everything between your handset and the bank would be encrypted, so that the merchant’s POS would carry it but be unable to read it. To guard against lost or stolen phones, your account details would be stored encrypted in the handset, and you would supply a key to enable the payment process.
“Finally! Someone who understands what absorption modulation is!”
Yes, it is a very deep and dark mystery and only a few are chosen to receive the gift of understanding. Thank God that we are among the chosen few! Remember the sacred blood oath that we took, and do not violate it!
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