Well given the comment by brunes69 that ATM cards are easily replaced for free I went ahead and nuked my HSBC debit card with 'pay pass'. The results were interesting and the odor acrid. Card was microwaved on high setting for 3 seconds. First it should be noted that microwaving a debit/credit/ATM card will have a similar effect on the hologram as it would a CD or DVD disc. Unfortunately I had placed the card face down so I didn't get to see the light show. On the other hand, the burn through from the metallic components in the card was also directed face down so that may have saved the magnetic strip from damage. The chip itself, located just above the 2nd number on the left side of the card made a nice big spark and melted some of the plastic on the front. Curiosity, and the desire to have a smooth flat surface, prompted me to remove the burnt chip as well as the 1 cm^2 or so of plastic covering it. Other cards may locate their chip in a different area. It was easy to find the chip by examining the back of the card in reflected light by the presence of a dimple or indent on the back of the card. The most surprising, though in hindsight obvious, part of this experiment was the fact that the antenna connected to the RFID chip is routed around the entire perimeter of the card, including a region above the entire length of the magnetic strip. Thus, it was fortunate that the metal burned through the face of the card rather than the reverse. There is a fair amount of burnt carbon residue on the short side edges as well as melted line around the perimeter where the antenna had once been. Nonetheless, the card worded just fine at the local branch's ATM machine as well as the counter-top swipe reader that the supermarket.
Yeah, something like microwaves were close to what I had in mind. I suppose it would take some testing to see how long it would take to fry the chip. My point with passive deactivation was to have a card that did not appear tampered with (ie. burn marks from toasted chip, smash marks from said hammer, etc)
Ha, and a tinfoil hat for me to wear in the checkout line as an accessory. I seriously doubt that wrapping a card in foil is a 'practical', not to mention durable, day to day solution to this issue. I can imagine the skeptical look of cashiers everywhere when they see my foil wrapped card. I wonder how long it would take before someone was accused of possible identity theft or similar mis-deeds using this method
Slashdot Mirror
Very cool development but I'm still holding out for my devices (and robots) to run on energon cubes
Well given the comment by brunes69 that ATM cards are easily replaced for free I went ahead and nuked my HSBC debit card with 'pay pass'. The results were interesting and the odor acrid. Card was microwaved on high setting for 3 seconds. First it should be noted that microwaving a debit/credit/ATM card will have a similar effect on the hologram as it would a CD or DVD disc. Unfortunately I had placed the card face down so I didn't get to see the light show. On the other hand, the burn through from the metallic components in the card was also directed face down so that may have saved the magnetic strip from damage. The chip itself, located just above the 2nd number on the left side of the card made a nice big spark and melted some of the plastic on the front. Curiosity, and the desire to have a smooth flat surface, prompted me to remove the burnt chip as well as the 1 cm^2 or so of plastic covering it. Other cards may locate their chip in a different area. It was easy to find the chip by examining the back of the card in reflected light by the presence of a dimple or indent on the back of the card. The most surprising, though in hindsight obvious, part of this experiment was the fact that the antenna connected to the RFID chip is routed around the entire perimeter of the card, including a region above the entire length of the magnetic strip. Thus, it was fortunate that the metal burned through the face of the card rather than the reverse. There is a fair amount of burnt carbon residue on the short side edges as well as melted line around the perimeter where the antenna had once been. Nonetheless, the card worded just fine at the local branch's ATM machine as well as the counter-top swipe reader that the supermarket.
Yeah, something like microwaves were close to what I had in mind. I suppose it would take some testing to see how long it would take to fry the chip. My point with passive deactivation was to have a card that did not appear tampered with (ie. burn marks from toasted chip, smash marks from said hammer, etc)
Ha, and a tinfoil hat for me to wear in the checkout line as an accessory. I seriously doubt that wrapping a card in foil is a 'practical', not to mention durable, day to day solution to this issue. I can imagine the skeptical look of cashiers everywhere when they see my foil wrapped card. I wonder how long it would take before someone was accused of possible identity theft or similar mis-deeds using this method