Since the mister and I are headed off to scary foreign places soon, we each invested in brand new passports, complete with RFID reading capacity, in order to prove our identity to those who may question it. RFID, or radio frequency identification, chips sends out a radio frequency, go figure, with information about the object or person with the chip. RFIDs are used all over to keep track of things, for example, in industry to track orders and shipments, in medicine to track samples, medications, and lost patients, and in agriculture to track live stock. Now they are also used in credit cards to offer a swipeless option. Some parents may want, or probably already have, to inject one into their kids. Great technology, right?
From my vast 10 minute search about these chips, I learned that card readers for such things range from a piddly $10 on up. What's the big deal? It means that Joe Nobody can buy a reader and, if your card has the chip, he can get close enough to you (as in 20 feet) and 'skim' your information. And you won't feel a thing. What a cozy world we live in! While not many cards use this technology just yet, some do and US passports do as well. How do you protect yourself? Don't carry one of those cards, or ask the bank to replace it with straight plastic, or buy an anti-RFID wallet. For passports, the US government was kind enough to slide and extra layer of metal into the book itself that is supposed to hinder, not prevent, would be thefts. How nice.
So, what type of shield works best? According to Consumer Reports, of the 10 products available on the market when the article was written, the homemade aluminum foil and duct tape sleeve worked better than 8 of them. Maybe I will make an aluminum foil helmet next to prevent someone reading my brain...though they may not find much useful information...
Any security people care to comment?
More specifically and confusingly: the card reader sends out a pulse of radio energy, which the RFID chip uses to send back its own response. Your wallet needs to be a Faraday cage. If you make it from a metal mesh, the mesh needs to have pretty small holes, and it needs to cover the chip well. Alternatively, you can destroy the chip, like by opening the passport in the microwave and nuking it for a few seconds. That might be illegal. It might also be worth it. Other ideas here.
ReplyDeleteThanks! "I'm not sure where those burn marks came from, Officer."
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