TrendSchwarzenegger terminates RFID skimming
As RFID technology becomes more pervasive — people now use it to gain access to offices, properties, children’s nurseries, parking lots, and others areas — concerns have been growing about wireless “skimming” of the information on the RFID tags; California now bans the practice
California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill making it illegal to wirelessly hack a person’s radio frequency identification (RFID) technology smartcard without their consent. The Californian law comes after the state of Washington passed a similar law covering RFID technology earlier this year.
U.S. citizens increasingly use RFID to gain access to offices, properties, children’s nurseries, parking lots, and others areas. The possibility of hackers wirelessly “skimming” (or “digitally pickpocketing”) people’s RFID smartcards has also been given wide publicity in the United Kingdom. New passports are already equipped with RFID chips and similar devices are integrated into London Transport’s Oyster travel cards.
Dutch researchers have already been to London to hack into the Oyster system. They managed to launch a “denial of service attack” on a ticket gate.
