What is RFID Skimming?

   The Basics:

  Skimming is the intentional act of wireless identity theft and has grown to include your RF (radio frequency) equipped credit cards, door access cards and employee badges.

A “skimmer”, uses readily available equipment and programs for about $50, gets their antenna within range of your RFID info and within seconds, they can steal your data. Quicker than you can read this sentence, your data could be on its way to purchasing a laptop for somebody who just walked past you. You never lose your card. Because you still have your card, all still seems right with the world.

That guy sitting at the coffee shop by the door with his laptop could be skimming information from everybody who walks past. In hours, all your money can be cleaned out of your accounts, and your credit cards maxed out if you don’t have an Armadillo Dollar in your wallet guarding your personal data.

RFID lives in many things and can be in anything you possess including jeans and tennis shoes. Passports, credit and debit cards, contactless smart cards, door security cards and cards of all kinds carry these RF chips. Employee badges have RFID monitoring so employers can monitor your whereabouts during your shifts, and now with the REAL ID Act of 2005 initiated by President Bush and our Congress, Section 302 states:

“The ground surveillance technologies utilized in the pilot program shall include the following:
(A) Video camera technology.
(B) Sensor technology.
(C) Motion detection technology.”

Our home state of Arizona just became the fourth state to sign agreement to the REAL ID Act of 2005, following Washington, Vermont and New York.
Referred to also as transponders, RFID chips are activated by a radio wave transmitted by a reader which triggers a program encoded into the chip. The communication begins between the reader and the chip. The information transmitted is unique to each chip and can be cloned rather easily. Rarely used, 40 bit encryption is standard for RFID encryption. Most companies do not use encryption because it magnifies the cost of a chip from a few pennies to a few dollars, and in the corporate world, the bottom line wins. To those in the know, banking systems use 128 bit encryption, and that was hacked last year.

Standard information included in the broadcast can be your name, account number(s), PIN codes, credit limits, even your home address can be found by the professional thief. The information here is the top-secret sort, the type the diligent person shreds when it comes in the mail. In the hands of the wrong person, it is devastating, costly and can wreak havoc on your peaceful world.

The enterprising skimmer can not only STEAL your identity, but they can totally scramble your cards, reprogramming them with whatever data they choose!

Skimmers can even reprogram RFID chips in the supermarkets, and stores so the prices register cheaper at checkout.

With an Armadillo Dollar in your wallet, you can protect your identity, shield your money and guard your family.