Fraud alert: new RFID credit cards
June 3, 2010 - 8:11pm
Anyone seen this? Frankly doesn't surprise me that credit-card companies would disregard security concerns in favour of profits (the CBC article says people using "smart" credit cards spend 25% more on average)
Most newly issued credit cards pose major fraud and privacy concerns because of how they're designed to be scanned through the air, some cyber-security experts warn.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/05/31/f-rfid-credit-cards-securi...
This is the same old news. Reporters are gullible, and generally believe what mainstream banks tell them.
It is said you can't have a democracy unless the electorate are educated. I would add you can't have a democracy without the media being educated.
This article, and articles like it, should be front page, and business page news commensurate for the risk to the general public of these 'easy to hack' technologies.
My experience is the public, and commerical interests (employees of vendors) are completely fooled by the claims of new technology being intrroduced. So for example when biometics are used for identity (cornea scan, finger prints, etc.) the security system is thought to be fool proof. Uneducated fools believe the claims that these systems are foolproof.
The result is the consumer faces a really difficult uphill battle to convince the banks when their identity has been stolen. "The computer can't be wrong" they argue. As someone with over two decades of systems designing and implementation experience, I say "bullshit", computer systems are wrong all the time....they are written by humans after all.
I don't fly on airbuses if I can avoid it, for the very same reason... in addition to haveing tracked their poor safety records as detailed in the comp.risks Usetnet news group, I watched one crash with my naked eye... but that's another story for another day.
The underlying technology problem with computers is that we don't have provably correct systems... there are always bugs, and "exploits" that are discovered which make computer systms vulnerable to attacks...
You are safer with non-RFID credit cards.. the technology to "protect you" is actually out to prove you must be at fault if your RFID is hacked... after all, its invincable technology the banks claim.
Matthew