FraudBlog.net is now posting blog entries contributed by fellow bloggers!!!


Whether experienced writers, corporate bloggers or fraud investigators, these people have something to share with the fraud prevention community. Stay tuned as new views are shared and new voices heard.

--J

It's that time of year again!

The FraudBlog.net team is once again in training for our ride up the DVP on Sunday, June 7th, 2009. Yet again we will cover ourselves in stretchy manmade fabrics and pedal for 50km as a group.

If you wish to join us, contribute to our team fundraising goal or simply come out and watch the event, please check out our team webpage.

--Jen

If you recall a few years back, the talk surrounding RFID tags cenetered around their implimentation in everyday life and fears regarding government surveillance.

This technology, dating back decades, has been used for everything from espionage, to human tracking to ensuring shelves are stocked at the supermarket. The creators of the most recent version of the RFID developped the device for use in broadcasting data over a specified radius. In no way did they attest to the encryption of the device for purposes of broadcasting private information to specific recipients.

It is of concern then that this technology has been in use for several years in passports, credt cards and various other forms of identification.

Chris Paget, a white-hat hacker, demonstrates in this video what can be done with easily accesible equipment as he reads passports and credit card numbers while driving in the San Francisco area.

The readers Chris discusses are widly available on the web. And the individuals responsible for the use of RFID's in passports? The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (the US law now requiring passports or other valid ID for air travel from Canada to the US). Unfortunately, the RFID chip maker intended the chip to be used for purposes other than the transmission of sensitive data creating a weakness susceptible to identity theft and fraud.

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