[Dave Birch] I had a few e-mails from people about the story in Engadget that was titled “RFID cards hacked easily with $8 reader”…
the crew at BoingBoing TV has posted up a little demo of how easy cracking the RFID encryption on an American Express card can be. All it takes is an $8 dollar reader easily available on eBay
[From RFID credit cards easily hacked with $8 reader - Engadget]
The actual title should have been “Well-designed American Express contactless cards work exactly according to specification and non-hacking non-exploit does not actually result in losses to either cardholder, retailers or American Express themselves”. Anyway, the reason I got a few e-mails was because people wanted to know where to get these $8 readers. I just checked on eBay (US) and the cheapest pre-owned contactless terminal I could find was over $60. The video actually shows him using a Vivotech Vivopay 5000 (which is a couple of hundred quid in the UK), so if this guy really can get them for $8 he’ll make far more money from reselling the terminals than he will from “hacking” ExpressPay cards.
These are the personal opinions of Consult Hyperion and its guests and should not be misunderstood as representing the opinion of its clients or suppliers. To discuss how any of the technologies discussed in this post can benefit your business, please contact Consult Hyperion.
