Contactless credit cards vulnerable to a range of scams
Johanson said it’s possible to use an RFID “gate antenna” — two electronic readers spanning a doorway, similar to the anti-theft gates in retail stores — to scan the credit cards of people passing through. With enough high-powered gates installed at key doorways in a city or across the country, someone could collect comprehensive information on people’s movements, buying habits and social patterns. “These days you can buy a $500 antenna to mount in doorways that can read every card that goes through it,” Johanson said.
Amazingly, these seem to be rife with holes — they still use the legacy EMV protocol, do not require online verification with backend systems, and allow replay attacks. A Journal.ie article today claims that attackers are sniffing EMV data, then replaying it against card readers in shops in Dublin, which while it may not be true, the attack certainly seems viable…(tags: rfid security scams emv wireless contactless credit-cards replay-attacks)
Counterfeit Macbook charger teardown: convincing outside but dangerous inside
rather dramatic differences
(tags: apple macbook chargers components hardware clones counterfeit)