RFID Chips

Hey Everyone,

Its been a while since my last post but I am back now. I recently got a new debit card so I destroyed my old one but I thought it would be interesting to show everyone what credit/debit card companies are hiding in their cards usually without customer knowledge. Below are pictures of an RFID chip from between the layers of my old debit card. Surprising how small it actually is (please note the actual chip is just the inner rectangle). The paper clip beside it is a standard small paper clip.

In my case I knew about this chip since my card had the PayPass feature. A lot of companies though are putting this in their cards for no reason (contains card number and other information about you) which means SECURITY ISSUE. Criminals are able to build a device for under $100 that can scan these cards from your pocket. So imagine someone hiding this device in say an airport, pretty scary huh? Think this doesn't happen? Then your an idiot! At the last DEFCON ("DEF CON is one of the oldest continuous running hacker conventions around, and also one of the largest.", Frequently attended by several FBI and other government agents.) a group set up a scanner as a project to make people aware of this problem. They were able to get information from several people using this scanner. See the following link for the whole Wired write up: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/fed-rfid/

Now there is something you can do to help protect your self. You can get rid of all your credit cards, right? If you are like me and NEVER carry cash then this is not an option. I was able to find another solution though over at ThinkGeek.com. They have Faraday protected wallets and passport (also contains RFID chips now) protectors. I have had the wallet for a few months now and have tested it and can say it actually does work! If you are interested here are the links: Wallet and Passport Protector. I will keep looking for other options and if I find anything I will add them here.

If anyone has questions let me know.

UPDATE: Found another option that allows you to be secure but not have to get a whole new wallet: RFID-blocking sleeves.

Timn