RFID-Blocking Blazer and Jeans Could Stop Wireless Identity Theft

An anonymous reader writes A pair of trousers and blazer have been developed by San Francisco-based clothing company Betabrand and anti-virus group Norton that are able to prevent identity theft by blocking wireless signals. The READY Active Jeans and the Work-It Blazer contain RFID-blocking fabric within the pockets' lining designed to prevent hacking through radio frequency identification (RFID) signals emitted from e-passports and contactless payment card chips. According to the clothing brand, this form of hacking is an increasing threat, with "more than 10 million identities digitally pick pocketed every year [and] 70% of all credit cards vulnerable to such attacks by 2015."

Comments

Hope it works better then my wallet

[Skylinux]

Paid extra for an RFID blocking wallet. Tested it out the next time I had to pay for lunch with my RFID card.
Placed wallet on reader, card is somewhere in the middle, beeep, thanks for you payment - fuck.

My wallet is a "Protact" with the A written like a German AE. 100% rip off, hope these pants are better.

Re:Hope it works better then my wallet

[AmiMoJo]

The solution is to make the cards secure. So far there have been no known contractless payment thefts via "walk by" attack, so it seems like the security works. I've been using such cards for a decade now without issue so at this point I trust them.

It's things like passports that are more at risk, since an attacker can read some personal data from them (payment cards are either anonymous or don't provide things like your name, they only allow transactions). Fortunately I don't carry my passport most of the time.

Re: signal blocking

[TheCarp]

I have a friend who is just flabbergasted at the idea that I sometimes just turn my ringer off and don't take calls.

I like to be able to take calls or to make them when I want to. I like having a mobile gps device and all that.... um, I like having a phone, but sometimes, I don't want to be disturbed, and sometimes Iforget to turn that off for a day or two...oops... but I can still call out and thats what I pay the bill for.....