RFID Hacked

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Whoozyerdaddy

Whoozyerdaddy

Lifer
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
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Link

LAS VEGAS, Nevada (AFP) - High-tech passports touted as advances in national security can be spied on remotely and their identifying radio signals cloned, computers hackers were shown at a conference.

Radio frequency identification technology, referred to as RFID, used in cash cards and passports, can be copied, blocked or imitated, said Melanie Rieback, a privacy researcher at Vrije University in the Netherlands.

Rieback demonstrated a device she and colleagues at Vrije built to hijack the RFID signals that manufacturers have touted as unreadable by anything other than proprietary scanners.

"I spend most of my time making the RFID industry's life miserable," the doctorate student told AFP. "I am not anti-RFID. It has the potential to make people's lives easier, but it needs to be used responsibly."

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RFID tags consist of a computer chips wrapped with tiny radio antennae. The chips store financial, identity, or other data that can then be sent to scanners by radio signals.
Click to expand...

So... raise your hand if you didn't see this coming.



 
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ThaGrandCow

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
7,956
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LOL

Sucks to be the people that have an RFID chip on their CC's so all they have to do is wave it near the cash register.
 
S

SVT Cobra

Lifer
Mar 29, 2005
13,264
2
0
I don't see why everyone got so upset when they started using RFID. First of all, we knew it would get hacked, but big deal? How is it any different than forging passports, ID's etc?
 
GeekDrew

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
19
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Originally posted by: F22 Raptor
I don't see why everyone got so upset when they started using RFID. First of all, we knew it would get hacked, but big deal? How is it any different than forging passports, ID's etc?
Click to expand...

Anybody nearby the passport could get the data from it, rather than actually having to have their hands on it.
 
Kaervak

Kaervak

Diamond Member
Jul 18, 2001
8,460
2
81
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
Originally posted by: F22 Raptor
I don't see why everyone got so upset when they started using RFID. First of all, we knew it would get hacked, but big deal? How is it any different than forging passports, ID's etc?
Click to expand...

Anybody nearby the passport could get the data from it, rather than actually having to have their hands on it.
Click to expand...

Yep. The From The Shadows guys demonstrated long range RFID reading at last years DEFCON. Nothing like having your passport info stolen while being dozens of feet away.
 
Whoozyerdaddy

Whoozyerdaddy

Lifer
Jun 27, 2005
19,216
1
61
Originally posted by: Kaervak
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
Originally posted by: F22 Raptor
I don't see why everyone got so upset when they started using RFID. First of all, we knew it would get hacked, but big deal? How is it any different than forging passports, ID's etc?
Click to expand...

Anybody nearby the passport could get the data from it, rather than actually having to have their hands on it.
Click to expand...

Yep. The From The Shadows guys demonstrated long range RFID reading at last years DEFCON. Nothing like having your passport info stolen while being dozens of feet away.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. This makes ID fraud a piece of cake. Imagine walking through a crowd of people with a scanner and gathering dozens passport/diver's licence/credit cards in one sweep.

Gathering the information is simple. From there it's only one small step to cloning.

This will be a huge problem to overcome. The simplest solution I see is to make the RFID enabled devices active rather than passive like they are now. That way you have to push a button to activate the chips instead of having them txmit 24/7 like they do now.

It wouldn't be a 100% fix but at least your info wouldn't be broadcast all over the place when it wasn't necessary to do so.
 
DrPizza

DrPizza

Administrator Elite Member Goat Whisperer
Mar 5, 2001
49,601
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I long ago figured it was relatively simple to block them; and suspected that it wouldn't be that difficult to imitate them.
 
T

T9D

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2001
5,320
6
0
Why arent they using thumbprint ID? You'd think that would be the way to go.
 
P

PokerGuy

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
13,650
201
101
Interesting.... I had no doubt it would be hacked at some point, but this is extremely quick. This is going to put a serious crimp in a lot of plans. I can't imagine it's going to be too difficult to mass clone these things, so anything with an rfid tag in it is now vulnerable.....
 
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