What's On Your Hotel Keycard

Lam1969 writes "From Robert Mitchell's blog on Computerworld: '... Wallace, IT director at AAA Reading-Berks in Wyomissing, Penn. has been bringing a card reader with him on business trips to see what's on the magnetic strips of his hotel room access cards. To his dismay, a surprising number have contained his name and credit card information - and in unencrypted form.' " Update: 09/20 19:10 GMT by J : Snopes, as of two months ago, says this is false.

Comments

This is why...

[Shkuey]

You always keep your keycards, and you always destroy them. I've yet to have an issue with a hotel wanting it back.

Really a big deal?

[DeadSea]

Your credit card contains your name and credit card number on it in an unencrypted form. If your key card does as well, you should treat it like a credit card.

1. It certainly would be nice for the hotel to tell you what they put on the card
2. They should tell you to report your credit card as stolen if you lose your key card.
3. They should securely erase or destroy key cards when you check out

I generally trust the hotel staff with my credit card number, and I generally acknoledge that there is info about me on the magnetic stripes in my wallet. Is this anything to get upset about?

Re:Really a big deal?

[stuckinarut]

You often hear about people that have had their ATM cards wiped by the magnets used to disable the security tags in stores. Many stores have 'Don't place cards here' signs to prevent this. If the hotels had 'Please place keycards here' on a similar magnet when you sign out then that would wipe them and problem solved.

URBAN MYTH ALERT

[Thurmont]

Here are sites detailing this myth...

http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/k/keycards.ht m
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/keycards.h tml
http://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/hoaxes/hoaxDetails .asp?HName=Hotel+Key+Card+Hoax&Page=4

I'm surprised this one passed thru Slashdot's editorial staff.