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Feds At DefCon Alarmed After RFIDs Scanned

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the oh-sure-now-you're-alarmed dept.

FourthAge writes "Federal agents at the Defcon 17 conference were shocked to discover that they had been caught in the sights of an RFID reader connected to a web camera. The reader sniffed data from RFID-enabled ID cards and other documents carried by attendees in pockets and backpacks. The 'security enhancing' RFID chips are now found in passports, official documents and ID cards. 'For $30 to $50, the common, average person can put [a portable RFID-reading kit] together,' said security expert Brian Marcus, one of the people behind the RFID webcam project. 'This is why we're so adamant about making people aware this is very dangerous.'"

3 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Missing the point. by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I think RFID is an awesome tech, it just has a risk for being abused.

    You're wrong. RFID is an abusive technology, which has only a slight risk of being used in awesome ways.

    We're talking about a technology that can wirelessly scan and tag objects and people. How stupid do you have to be to not see where this is going?

    --
    May the Maths Be with you!
  2. Re:What do you bet... by sumdumass · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Some people are idiots by choice.

    I'm glad we live in a free world and you are allowed to make choices. Generally though, in a free place, the choice is on to the individual as long as they don't effect others. I'm not sure how a law banning guns is a free concept but hay, if it helps you sleep at night, I'm glad you have that choice.

  3. Probably wasting your time by Runaway1956 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The NRA among others keeps track of crime statistics. The gun control activists hate it when a permissive gun carrying law is enacted, because crime drops dramatically, immediately. Instead, the activists try to cover up those statistics, pointing to another part of the country and crying about all the shootings there.

    You can't convince a zealot.

    The sunsabitches who spend so much time trying to take our rights away, will NOT be found volunteering to work with youth, or counseling first time offenders of minor crimes. It is more to their advantage to have youth and minor offenders graduate to more serious criminal activity, thereby giving the activist yet more ammunition with which to infringe on honest people's rights.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br