Disable your RFID!

[Filthy_McNasty]

It's bad enough there are video cameras taping our every move from the minute we walk out the door to gas up the car to the local supermarket for a gallon of milk.. Now we have to deal with radio frequency chips!? Enough's enough!

The best way to disable the chips in your credit card/debit card is to zap it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.


There's some useful info on THIS site regarding blocking or disabling rfid chips.


Here's a snippet:

RFID chips are very similar to barcodes in the sense that a certain amount of data is contained within them, and then transmitted to a reading device which then processes and utilizes the information. The major difference is that barcodes have to be physically visible to the reading device, which is usually only able to scan them at a distance of a 12 inches or less. RFID tags, on the other hand, do not have to be visible to the reading device. They can be scanned through clothes, wallets, and even cars. The distance from which they can be read is also much greater than that of a barcode. At DEFCON an RFID tag was scanned at a distance of 69 feet, and that was back in 2005, the possible reading distance now is probably much greater than that

Don't tamper with the rfid in your passport!

[survive]

Originally Posted by Filthy_McNasty

It's bad enough there are video cameras taping our every move from the minute we walk out the door to gas up the car to the local supermarket for a gallon of milk.. Now we have to deal with radio frequency chips!? Enough's enough!

The best way to disable the chips in your credit card/debit card is to zap it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.


There's some useful info on THIS site regarding blocking or disabling rfid chips.


Here's a snippet:



Don't tamper with the rfid in your passport!

It would be nice to know exactly how far you can go without rendering the cards useless to use. As annoying as it is to have big brother watching, we have come to rely on the convenience of "plastic" to pay for things. Ideally, we can move towards "cash only", but that only works for small ticket items. If you try to buy a plane ticket with cash they will have some SERIOUS questions about your intentions for flying.

Thanks for sharing the info though.

[neovenus]

Originally Posted by survive

It would be nice to know exactly how far you can go without rendering the cards useless to use. As annoying as it is to have big brother watching, we have come to rely on the convenience of "plastic" to pay for things. Ideally, we can move towards "cash only", but that only works for small ticket items. If you try to buy a plane ticket with cash they will have some SERIOUS questions about your intentions for flying.

Thanks for sharing the info though.

I pay cash for everything, and then i have a prepaid debit card for things if needed. but i mostly pay cash.

[doh]

It's actually gotten worse. There have been proven instances of 'drive by' RFID theft of the new passports. There is a reason they make tin-foil wallets now.

[Backwoods Bound]

RFID secure wallets http://www.kenakai.com/SubCats.asp?cid=2

[sillyvilian]

I've taken to cutting up little liner sheaths out of the mylar from mountain house packages and given all my cards little tin-foil-hats.

[rncmomx2]

I gave my little piggy a tin foil hat (well kiddos made it for her)..................she was a mini that never grew up...sadly she passed away a few months ago. In that pic she was about the size of a tin can and about 2-3 months old.


I miss her little grunts so much she was so sweet.


I have never needed to zap anything but then again I cant cause I dont have a microwave. I do have one of those little round chips on the back of my license. Is that anything to worry over?

[Filthy_McNasty]

@ rncmomx2 ▬ please check out the link i posted. You may find your answer there

[Mortimer]

Putting these chips in credit cards was about the stupidest thing the card industry ever came up with. Seriously, what's the advantage? You get to pull the card out and wave it in front of the machine instead of swipe it through the reader?

I worked in terminal automation systems back in 1999, we used those chips in cards we gave to truck drivers to identify themselves at terminals, even back then we could read them with a candybar-sized device at 15-20 feet away. More sophisticated systems could read them from the driver's wallet, while he was sitting in his truck, driving 20mph in the driveway to the terminal.

[MikeK]

Originally Posted by doh

It's actually gotten worse. There have been proven instances of 'drive by' RFID theft of the new passports. There is a reason they make tin-foil wallets now.

Tin foil wallets? Wow, now I'll have a wallet to match my hat!

I don't like the RFID technology, but I don't worry about it that much either. If I'm using the card, there's already a traceable trail. If theifs are scanning them, then the companies will be footing the bill for the losses. I bet that makes them change their plan in a hurry. None of my cards have them though, and I intend to keep it that way.

[MrGreenJeans]

Wait till they insert your DNA into one of those little RFID things. Now anywhere any time any reason, you could be scanned, for your and everyone's safety of course.

[prepperintraining]

So, can we zap the cards in the microwave without making them useless for transactions?

[Filthy_McNasty]

Originally Posted by prepperintraining

So, can we zap the cards in the microwave without making them useless for transactions?

Originally Posted by Filthy_McNasty

The best way to disable the chips in your credit card/debit card is to zap it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds.

You'll see some sparks, that's when you know the chip has been fried
I've done it to all of my old and new debit & credit cards without any harm. They swipe normally

[TANSTAF1]

How can you find out if your credit card has an RFID?

[APX.808]

I would go with the Faraday cage wallet solution that way you keep a fully functional card

[hedley]

Using a hammer is said to be effective and leaves no traces even on passports.

[willysurvive]

One more reason to stay away from a the cash free society thing!

[doh]

Originally Posted by hedley

Using a hammer is said to be effective and leaves no traces even on passports.

Knowing whats in the passports, you have to hit it JUST right in order to nuke the chip.

On top of that, you could be flagged by border control for a replacement passport.

My wife and I spent 6 years in Europe. The Germans could care less about us - we would flash our passports and military ID's and they wouldn't glance at us for more than 1/2 a second (out of 10+ transactions with these folks, I think I got stamped twice). In the US, we would get 40 questions, scans of our passport that they would look up in their computer system, the questionnaire they pass out would be triple checked against everything, etc. Since our stay was over 30 days, it was easier to just pull out our ID's to start with so they understood - then it turned into "what other countries were you in?" "how long where you in X country?", "has anyone approached you for information?" - stupid stuff.

So much for trusting your own citizens that are military...

[The Saint]

use an RFID wallet for security, tampering with your passport will only gain you the attention of some very unreasonable TSA boys. just sayin...

[alergyfree]

What about the chips in most new clothing and just about anything manufactured?
Still a way to track your happy butt.

And this doesn't count the upgrades
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/06...hips_are_here/