Smartphone Used To Scan Data From Chip-Enabled Credit Cards

An anonymous reader sends this news from the CBC: "Using a Samsung Galaxy SIII — one of the most popular smartphones available in Canada — and a free app downloaded from the Google Play store, CBC was able to read information such as a card number, expiry date and cardholder name simply holding the smartphone over a debit or credit card. And it could be done through wallets, pockets and purses. ... Although the NFC antennas in current smartphones need to be very close to a card in order to work — no farther than 10 cm — that could change with the next generation of Android smartphones. Legary said the Samsung Galaxy S4, set to go on sale this spring, might have a much more capable NFC antenna, which could not only read credit cards from a greater distance, but could also be able to read the chips embedded in enhanced driving licenses and passports."

Comments

Did anybody not see this coming?

[gstoddart]

I've always thought those tap-to-pay things were really a bad idea from a security perspective, as your card can be used without you even knowing it and without any form of authentication.

The fact that it will broadcast all of that information to just about anything tells me it's something which retailers and credit card companies like -- but it's mostly bad for security, but great for convenience.

I may need to call my bank and see if I can get that disabled on my cards. I don't use it, don't want it, and seeing this, I trust it even less than I ever have. I'd prefer it didn't even respond to the NFC terminals.

I've always thought this was massively insecure, and it looks like I was right.