Graduate Student Cracks RFID Encryption Code

I just posted the other day about a security expert that created a program to hack the information contained in RFID-enabled credit cards. Now, a graduate student from the University of Virginia and some hacker buddies are causing additional concern with these RFID chips.

A graduate student from the University and several of his hacker buddies reportedly dismantled and hacked an RFID chip similar to those used in literally millions of credit cards. They identified the specific security algorithm and broke the encryption in a matter of hours.

These RFID chips are found inside all kinds of things, including credit cards, security key cards, car keys, and subway passes. By cracking the encryption code for these RFID chips, a thief could gain ready access to a wide variety of highly sensitive personal and financial information.

The company that makes the chips that were hacked says that the student and his buddies only managed to break part of the algorithm. Maybe it was only a part, but it sure doesn’t seem as if it was too difficult for them to break at least a portion of it. Just how hard will it be for them – or a crook – to crack the entire thing?

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 6th, 2008 at 6:12 pm and is filed under Card Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.