[Clips] Why Some People Put These Credit Cards In the Microwave

[R. A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:09:33 -0400
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  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Why Some People Put These Credit Cards In the Microwave
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  <http://online.wsj.com/article_print/SB114463085998921417.html>

  The Wall Street Journal

  April 10, 2006


  PAGE ONE

  Why Some People Put
  These Credit Cards
  In the Microwave
  Mr. Walker Took a Hammer
  To His New MasterCard --
  To Stop the Radio Waves

  By SUSAN WARREN

  April 10, 2006; Page A1

  When Brenden Walker got his new MasterCard PayPass ATM card in the mail
  last month, he headed to the gas station to try it out.

  To test the card's "Tap N Go" convenience, he passed it in front of the
  scanner, which activated with a beep and displayed the word
  "authorizing..." on its LCD screen.

  That was quite enough for Mr. Walker. Without completing the transaction,
  he put the card down on the pavement and took a hammer to it.


  "I gave it a couple of good whacks," he says.

  The PayPass card, which contains an embedded radio chip, had worked
  perfectly. Other companies have their own versions: Exxon (SpeedPass),
  American Express (ExpressPay) and Visa (Contactless and Blink). In each
  case, the cards use an embedded electronic chip with miniature antenna.
  When activated by a scanner, the chip transmits the user's account
  information via radio signals. In just the wave of a hand, the purchase
  amount is automatically drawn from an account.

  But Mr. Walker, a 37-year-old software engineer in Canton, Ohio, is one of
  a growing number of computer and technology experts who are becoming
  anxious about possible abuses of the technology. Mr. Walker fears that
  thieves will be able to eavesdrop on the radio transmission and buy gas at
  his expense. He also figures that he himself could walk past the pump and
  accidentally pay for somebody else's gas, though the card companies say he
  would have to get within two inches of the scanner to accomplish that feat.

  In any event, he wants no part of it. Hammering the card destroyed the
  chip. "I tried it again and...nothing," he says. "I might as well have been
  holding up a salami sandwich."

  As the chips become more widespread, other militants are seeking them out
  and destroying them. And a little industry is springing up on the Internet
  to pitch an array of devices meant to protect consumers from abuses of the
  technology, called radio frequency identification, or RFID. One example:
  wallets with metal shields built in that block radio signals.

  Radio chips have been around for decades performing other tasks, mostly
  related to security access. They are the invisible passports that allow
  motorists to breeze through highway tollbooths and let employees open their
  office doors.

  Pets and people are getting chip implants under their skin that carry
  identification or medical information. Governments are beginning to use
  radio chips in driver's licenses and passports. Retailers use them to track
  inventory. The banks that are now using chips in their credit and cash
  cards say they make transactions more efficient -- and more convenient for
  customers.

  Critics such as Mr. Walker worry that sensitive information will be
  intercepted. Some privacy advocates envision businesses and government
  furtively gathering personal data on unsuspecting consumers, and criminals
  taking identify theft to a whole new level.

  A German group called FoeBud, which describes itself as a civil-rights
  group for the digital age, is featuring an array of RFID-busting products
  in the organization's online store. Items include "deactivator nippers,"
  which look remarkably like a common hole-punch, priced at about $7. The
  most popular item in the store has been a copper bracelet with a red light
  that blinks when it is near an RFID scanner, says Rena Tangens, FoeBud's
  founder. The store claims to have sold about a thousand bracelets so far at
  about $18. "People think this is a cool gadget," Ms. Tangens says.

  Others are using do-it-yourself methods for disabling radio chips,
  including microwaving them. The electromagnetic energy emitted by a
  microwave oven fries the chip and renders it useless. The downside: Tagged
  items might burst into flames in the process, warns Caspian, a consumer
  group campaigning against the widening use of radio tags. The group
  suggests cutting out the chip with a pair of scissors, puncturing it with a
  straight pin, crushing it or pulverizing it.

  Several Web sites boast about -- but don't yet sell -- devices with names
  like TagZapper and RFIDWasher, which are supposed to make disabling the
  tags easier. Technology experts say some of these "zappers" work by
  emitting a burst of electromagnetic energy that permanently destroys the
  tag. Unfortunately, they say, it might also fry other nearby electronics,
  including iPods and cellphones.

  Some techies in Germany figured out how to make a Zapper by modifying a
  disposable camera. When you hit the switch, instead of taking a picture, it
  emits a burst of electromagnetic energy that fries any nearby electronics.
  They have posted an extensive description of their project on the Internet.
  Several technology experts contacted say it should work, but the developers
  did not respond to emails requesting comment.

  A Web site describing the gadget listed several potential hazards,
  including electric shocks and Federal Communications Commission law
  violations. It also warned, "Don't try it near your grandpa's pacemaker."

  Makers of products using RFID say privacy and security safeguards are being
  built into the chips to prevent abuses. MasterCard International says
  multiple layers of security are available to prevent MasterCard data from
  being stolen by electronic eavesdropping. It is up to the companies that
  issue the card to decide which security measures to adopt, says Art
  Kranzley, MasterCard's executive vice president in charge of new payment
  technologies.

  Customers who don't want RFID in their PayPass payment cards can ask to be
  issued an old-fashioned chipless card, says Mr. Kranzley.

  Kelly Lum, 23 years old, a computer-network engineer in Eatontown, N.J.,
  recently bought a wallet online from a site called DIFRWear (RFID
  backwards). The wallet has a metal insert designed to shield her radio-chip
  bank card from being read without her knowledge.

  The card Ms. Lum carries came without any information about security
  safeguards, she says, so she decided to take no chances. "It's maybe a
  little bit of a paranoia thing, but hey, it's my credit rating," she says.

  Eric Caraszi, a 26-year-old computer programmer in Albany, N.Y., recently
  bought an RFID-proof wallet after having a conversation with a co-worker
  about different ways criminals might be able to exploit RFID-chip cards --
  from sneaky scans on crowded elevators to high-powered scanners on the
  roadside that could mine passing traffic.

  "For every smart person trying to make a lock, there is going to be an
  equally smart person trying to unlock that lock," he notes.

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'