Cracking RFID Using an $8 Scanner

By now, many of you are well aware of the false securities that are imposed by many institutions, including banks, but a new video at Boing Boing further proves the fact that we are are less secure than ever.

RFID chips are nothing new, and now, many credit cards, ID cards, employee ID cards and others are equipped with the technology. What’s supposed to be secure, is not so much, as proven in the video. According to hacker Pablos Holman, all you need to read an RFID chip is an $8 scanner that can be had on eBay.

In the video, he shows just how easy it is to read these cards. In a real scenario, walking up behind a person is all that it takes to read their RFID tag, unless of course, they have a metal wallet, in which case it would block the signal. But, that kind of situation would be rare. For $8 though, a malicious person could simply rub up behind you and grab your credit card and possibly even all of your identification. Scary stuff, but a blatant reality. RFID has its uses, that’s for sure, but they don’t belong in our credit cards.

But on today’s episode of Boing Boing tv, hacker and inventor Pablos Holman shows Xeni how you can use about $8 worth of gear bought on eBay to read personal data from those credit cards — cardholder name, credit card number, and whatever else your bank embeds in this manner.

Source: Boing Boing