Comments on: Stealing RFID Credit Card Data Is Easy!

By: thomas

thomas — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:30:09 +0000

As long as there is technology, there will be someone, somewhere trying to work the angle, and there will be an angle.

Remember the big scare was waiters scanning your card with their hidden reader tucked in their jacket to secure your numbers? This is no different. A scam is a scam.

I’m more worried about my wallet being lost/stolen than technology bandits.

By: Mike @ FromMike.com

Mike @ FromMike.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:36:41 +0000

That’s just scary… I used to think it was scary-easy to create copies of credit cards, but this doesn’t even require someone to get their hands on my card :-/

By: Lo

Lo — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 00:03:48 +0000

Oh no! I’ve tried to understand your summary as much as I could, so I apologize if I’m asking a stupid question. What’s the best way to prevent this (aside from foil in the wallet or a stainless steel wallet)? Just not use RFID-cards at all?

By: Rich Rogan - I Will Teach You To Be Rich With Investing

Rich Rogan - I Will Teach You To Be Rich With Investing — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:07:20 +0000

Thank you for posting about this, scary stuff!

By: mitchell

mitchell — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:48:22 +0000

as a computer engineer who’s done work with RFID stuff, i can only say “duh”.

i don’t use credit cards with the EZ Pay stuff in it, and i was a vocal opponent (wrote my elected officials) to the RFID tags in passports push.

none of the RFID-based options are secure, even if they’re encrypted. encrypt the card data and all someone needs to do is read the encrypted data and re-write it back onto a new blank RFID chip. and now you have a cloned version of the card — you don’t need to know the number or the expiration date if you can find something that will let you simply scan the card and walk away (some fast food restaurants, some gas stations).

By: Saving Freak

Saving Freak — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:25:45 +0000

I have heard the same thing and the logic does stand up. I am not particularly fond of the technology. Early adopters of such things tend to get burned until the kinks get worked out of the system. If our cards were as secure as those in Europe I would love it.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:52:27 +0000

It should work because it will disrupt the magnetic signal.

By: Lin

Lin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:48:32 +0000

This is interesting. Do you know anything about having a piece of foil in your wallet to prevent this? My husband read it somewhere, so he does it. Does it work?