soapbox

So I just this week had one of my credit cards (involuntarily) upgraded to a “smart” card - it has an RFID chip embedded, so you can use the card like speedpass or other proximity-scanned systems. Now it’s one thing to use this technology to be able to get into your dorm when both hands are full:

…but quite another to have your wallet broadcasting your credit card info. Especially given all the stuff I’ve read about how hackable RFID is (for example, here and here), I’m definitely considering resigning this card to at-home/only-only purchasing. Or maybe just line my wallet with aluminum foil?

Nathaniel, given your spouse’s experience with this sort of payment system (they say it speeds transaction times by 23 seconds and that average expenditures increase significantly with these things), any reassurance? Others? I know that Speedpass wands use encryption but I read an article recently saying that the encryption is pathetic and would take just a few seconds to break.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 11:18 pm and is filed under companies, geek, problems. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.