Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards

John Schwartz reports in The New York Times on the security vulnerabilities of RFID-enabled credit cards:

But in tests on 20 cards from Visa, MasterCard and American Express, the researchers here found that the cardholder’s name and other data was being transmitted without encryption and in plain text. They could skim and store the information from a card with a device the size of a couple of paperback books, which they cobbled together from readily available computer and radio components for $150.

(Via Boing Boing.)

★ Monday, 23 October 2006