Since last week we showed you how thieves could hack into your car to disable some security systems, this week, we’re following up with how thieves can now steal your credit card information right out of your back-pocket or purse. (or man-purse if you choose to go that way)
So you thought the new embedded chips on some of the newer credit cards were making you safer? Think again. It appears that by using readily available software, and some cheap portable eBay RFID scanners, a would be thief could steal your credit card information, and quite easily.
New credit cards with embedded RFID chips are vulnerable to being read from a good distance, far enough that you wouldn’t notice. In fact, if someone equipped with the appropriate, and very portable equipment, was to walk around in a crowded place like a mall, train station or airport, he could pick up literally hundreds of credit card numbers, expiration dates, and more.
Of course, someone immediately invented a way to prevent this by developing a sleeve, made to block the RFID from being read. Still, it remains unsure as to what will happen, will credit card companies change all their cards once again? And then what? You see the thing is, RFID was supposed to be the all in one chip that could eventually be implanted into our respective little electricity producing necks, so that the Matrix could detect which of us was running inside or outside the Matrix, but now? All that’s gone to hell.
I’m not saying that credit card companies are the Matrix, nor would I ever imply that Google is Skynet. But the similarities are there, which brings us to our “We Interrupt to give you a tip of the week” segment: If you’re given the choice, take the red pill, as it generally avoids trouble.
