You think the new X-Box is “hot” for Christmas?
How about RFID readers stealing your credit card information for Christmas?
Just what is RFID? That stands for “Radio Frequency IDentification.” Chips embedded in any number of items may actually broadcast, from a limited to a longer range, select information contained within those various items. Things you might have on your person utilizing RFID technology would include credit/debit cards and American passports issued after 2006. RFID technology is also commonly utilized for electronic toll payments on bridges and causeways.
The RFID chip contained within certain credit cards are of the passive variety: they have no power source and require an external electromagnetic field to initiate a signal transmission. RFID “readers” (also known as interrogators), portrayed in the video above, can in fact be utilized covertly to capture information on passive chips.
As you can see, RFID is very popular in terms of selling and marketing. It is also very popular in businesses and venues that need to keep track of inventory. In that vein, the RFID concept has been in use for many years — first enabled and utilized on American railroads to keep track of vast trains. RFID tags, placed on cars and locomotives, run past an RFID reader and the markup of a train is instantly captured for reference and archival by dispatchers, yardmasters and railroad personnel.
And if the above video isn’t enough, Boing Boing TV shows you, on this video, just how to hack information from RFID-encrusted credit cards.
How can you tell if you have a card with an RFID chip? Look for the small logo of curved broadcast waves on its face.
What can you do to attempt some measure of security, since it’s estimated that over 100-million customers might be at risk? I might start with the suggestion made in the first video: check into a shield pouch from Identity Stronghold. Hint: the US government is a customer.
Forewarned, ladies and gentlemen, is forearmed. And this problem / “solution” will not stop with credit cards. Some entities and concerns would like to see you implanted.
Of final consideration: who and or what will make RFID chipping mandatory?
Merry Christmas.
BZ
Pretty soon, all of us will have a “chip imbedded under the skin”, just like our 2 dogs here at home.
Just wave a scanner over us, and our ID will show up on the scanner.
Within 10 years, all of us will have this, as mandated by our US GOVT.
They can verichip my corpse all they want.
While I am still breathing is another matter.
The day it is “required” to have a verichip is the day We the People become livestock. Since at that point you will have nothing left to lose but your life, make it count.
“Just saying”.
Agree with Toaster 802.
My FastPass has a metal impregnated plastic bag for storage. The bag isolates the RFID from detection. Logical extension: shielded wallet for credit cards. Shocking conclusion: aluminum foil hats are BACK!
Mr Chuck: except, like Toaster points out, “over my dead body.”
Toaster: “livestock” is completely correct. You likely know that CATTLE are already tagged with RFID chips. That means that HUMANS will, at that point, be nothing more than “INVENTORY.” My guess: the stupid young kids won’t much care about giving away even MORE of their freedoms — they never KNEW nor were they TAUGHT what freedom is all about. You can see how, now, that was done PURPOSELY.
DM: that’s just like the guy who offers the shields at “Identity Stronghold.” As a matter of fact, you can click there and see if YOUR shield looks like the shield(s) he offers. His company is a government supplier.
BZ