Fun with RFID aka Researchers see privacy pitfalls in no-swipe credit cards

Jonathan Schwartz @ News.com has an article that will be making the rounds quite a bit regarding unencrypted information on some of the new credit cards. I fully expect our Makers to make a text to speech version that screams out names as people walk by –

“They call it the “Johnny Carson attack,” for his comic pose as a psychic divining the contents of an envelope. Tom Heydt-Benjamin tapped an envelope against a black plastic box connected to his computer. Within moments, the screen showed a garbled string of characters that included this: fu/kevine, along with some numbers. Heydt-Benjamin then ripped open the envelope. Inside was a credit card, fresh from the issuing bank. The card bore the name of Kevin E. Fu, a computer science professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who was standing nearby. The card number and expiration date matched those numbers on the screen. “ Thanks Sdwarf! – Link.

More:

• No-Swipe Credit Card No Problem For Thieves – Link.
• Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards” – Link.
• Vulnerabilities in First-Generation RFID-enabled Credit Cards – Link.
• RFID Payment Card Vulnerabilities Technical Report – Link.

RFID projects, readers, hacks and more:

• DEFCON RFID World record attempt… – Link.
• Interview with RFID implanter – Link.
• RFID Robot – Link.
• RFID door – Link.
• RFID enabled flame shooting trampoline – Link.
• MAKE VIDEO PODCAST – Getting “Chipped” – Link.
• HOW TO – Homemade RFID reader – Link.
• HOW TO – Make a RFID zapper – Link.
• DIY RFID-Zapper… – Link.

From the pages of MAKE:

• RFID for Makers – Build this kit to read radio frequency ID tags. MAKE 06 – Page 162. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition!