Mythbusters blocked from doing a show on RFID

[Modelworks]

I hate when lawyers decide what people can view. It seems mythbusters has been blocked by discovery from doing myths about some aspects of RFID.

Its not like the info on this stuff is top secret, there are several books that contain all anyone needs to know to circumvent RFID. Seems they just didn't want to publicize how vulnerable the tech really is. At least the normal cheap version is, there is a secure version but that cost 10x more to use. I guess that isn't worth it to visa, etc.

http://consumerist.com/5043831...ng-rfid-security-flaws

Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They were way, way outgunned and they absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it.

 

[Jeff7]

:laugh:

So are these companies like....doing anything about these serious flaws? Or are they just going to approach it like Macrovision, and the likes of them, prefer to fight their battles - legal pressure?

Maybe some independent group, who's not advertiser-dependent, could do some similar work. Unless it's already been done, of course.

 

[l0cke]

I love how this is really old but all of the big places, even slashdot, just picked up on it now. HOPE was awhile ago people.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: l0cke
I love how this is really old but all of the big places, even slashdot, just picked up on it now. HOPE was awhile ago people.

slashdot has covered a lot of RFID topics before.

the powers-that-be there frequently repost old topics, post new updates for old topics, or post news topics related to any old topic, even if there is nothing new or interesting about the story that would ensure any of the comments are any more worth reading now than they were 6 months ago

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
:laugh:

So are these companies like....doing anything about these serious flaws? Or are they just going to approach it like Macrovision, and the likes of them, prefer to fight their battles - legal pressure?

Maybe some independent group, who's not advertiser-dependent, could do some similar work. Unless it's already been done, of course.

That is what is so silly about the whole thing.
The tech already exist to use the encrypted cards. The difference is cost and that most readers use the old tech that is not encrypted.
Difference in cost isn't really high either.
regular rfid cards - 85 cents, encrypted rfid cards $2.50
regular reader - $50 , encrypted reader $200

I think it is more that they distributed the tech and realized too late the flaws and are now playing catch up.

 

[Kreon]

The movie linked under the interview with Adam was interesting...
Really scary how easy that is for someone to do...

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Kreon
The movie linked under the interview with Adam was interesting...
Really scary how easy that is for someone to do...

Yes it is easy.
Reminds me of how the companies promoted wifi.
They were so excited by the tech they never thought about securing it until after it was already on the market.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Jeff7
:laugh:

So are these companies like....doing anything about these serious flaws? Or are they just going to approach it like Macrovision, and the likes of them, prefer to fight their battles - legal pressure?

Maybe some independent group, who's not advertiser-dependent, could do some similar work. Unless it's already been done, of course.

That is what is so silly about the whole thing.
The tech already exist to use the encrypted cards. The difference is cost and that most readers use the old tech that is not encrypted.
Difference in cost isn't really high either.
regular rfid cards - 85 cents, encrypted rfid cards $2.50
regular reader - $50 , encrypted reader $200

I think it is more that they distributed the tech and realized too late the flaws and are now playing catch up.

Not to side track but this is the case with the manufacturing industry - a rush to get products/solution to market and then try to catch up when it is even MORE expensive to do so.

Most of the manufacturing industry is still using WEP for WiFi security simply because it would cost too much money to replace the client devices which are in the 1000s of dollars per unit cost.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
That is what is so silly about the whole thing.
The tech already exist to use the encrypted cards. The difference is cost and that most readers use the old tech that is not encrypted.
Difference in cost isn't really high either.
regular rfid cards - 85 cents, encrypted rfid cards $2.50
regular reader - $50 , encrypted reader $200

I think it is more that they distributed the tech and realized too late the flaws and are now playing catch up.

Why is security always an afterthought? And credit cards using RFID without encryption?????

"Nah, no one will ever figure this stuff out, just like Blu-Ray's encryption was 100% unhackable, and how Diebold voting machines are 100% secure. Right? Get it to market!!!"


Is this the sort of stuff they didn't want aired?

 

[Agentbolt]

This is nothing new. Do you REALLY think there's absolutely no way to beat a Breathalyzer test, or trick a cop's radar gun? Mythbusters has always bitched out rather than dispense info that might be even remotely useful to people trying to beat the system.

 

[mcmilljb]

It'll be on Youtube in 3-2-1...

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: mcmilljb
It'll be on Youtube in 3-2-1...

It's not that this information isn't already out there, it's that the average joe-schmo knows nothing of it. This is something of public concern that is being hushed up.

A true to life conspiracy. =p

 

[manowar821]

Bastards.

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: TruePaige

Originally posted by: mcmilljb
It'll be on Youtube in 3-2-1...

It's not that this information isn't already out there, it's that the average joe-schmo knows nothing of it. This is something of public concern that is being hushed up.

A true to life conspiracy. =p

I meant someone will leak the episode. Oh I know the information is out there. Any thing sending radio waves is open to attack, period. The goal is to make it too expensive to try to hack it.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
This is nothing new. Do you REALLY think there's absolutely no way to beat a Breathalyzer test, or trick a cop's radar gun? Mythbusters has always bitched out rather than dispense info that might be even remotely useful to people trying to beat the system.

:laugh:

Yeah, as soon as they presented those show ideas, I knew what the results would be.
Just like their upcoming episode on the Moon landings - hoax, or real? DUUUH, Gee, George, I wonder what they're going to conclude?

 

[hdeck]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
This is nothing new. Do you REALLY think there's absolutely no way to beat a Breathalyzer test, or trick a cop's radar gun? Mythbusters has always bitched out rather than dispense info that might be even remotely useful to people trying to beat the system.

:laugh:

Yeah, as soon as they presented those show ideas, I knew what the results would be.
Just like their upcoming episode on the Moon landings - hoax, or real? DUUUH, Gee, George, I wonder what they're going to conclude?

to be fair, only morons think the moon landing was a hoax.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
This is nothing new. Do you REALLY think there's absolutely no way to beat a Breathalyzer test, or trick a cop's radar gun? Mythbusters has always bitched out rather than dispense info that might be even remotely useful to people trying to beat the system.

Would it even be legal to? I hear what you're saying, the first time I saw the brethalyzer episode, I said "They must've found some ways to cheat, but there's no way in hell they'd show it.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: hdeck
to be fair, only morons think the moon landing was a hoax.

Well remember their one episode where they had fan submissions? Some of the ones they showed were pretty damn pathetic. I don't know if they were put-ons or what. The submissions were for the Archimedes Death Ray; one of them included some guys firing a log out of a cannon, across their little array of mirrors, or one guy who was launching paintballs at little model ships. Laughably stupid clips, and sadly, I think they were all genuine.

And from what I see of a lot of Discovery's content, it seems aimed at a demographic that is barely literate, with a 4th-grade education, and an IQ somewhere around 60.

 

[grrl]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Agentbolt
This is nothing new. Do you REALLY think there's absolutely no way to beat a Breathalyzer test, or trick a cop's radar gun? Mythbusters has always bitched out rather than dispense info that might be even remotely useful to people trying to beat the system.

Would it even be legal to? I hear what you're saying, the first time I saw the brethalyzer episode, I said "They must've found some ways to cheat, but there's no way in hell they'd show it.

Can you think of any way you can really beat a breathalyzer (or a radar gun)? I can't. If the breathalyzer reads the alcohol metabolized in your breath, the only way to beat it would be to substitute other air for your breath. I can't think of any simple myth that would accomplish that.

 

[bctbct]

sounds like a good thing to me, I dont want a bunch of nerds being shown how to steal my shit.

 

[BigJ]

Originally posted by: bctbct
sounds like a good thing to me, I dont want a bunch of nerds being shown how to steal my shit.

Those nerds already know how to steal your shit. All this show was probably going to show is how unsafe RFID actually is.