Digital Pickpockets

Abstract on Digital Pickpockets :

The Internet has been a buzz with tales of fraudsters who can now steal your credit card accounts just by walking past you with an electronic scanner.Wireless identity theft, also known as contactless identity theft or RFID identity theft, is a form of identity theft described as "the act of compromising an individual's personal identifying information using wireless (radio frequency) mechanics. Hacker say how easy it is to steal credit card numbers in seconds while you still have them in your hand, Criminals use RFID and NFC wireless communication to steal numbers and The readers can be brought online or downloaded to phone via an app and They have to stand six inches away while a transaction is being made and Within a matter of seconds, the technology can pick up and store data.

How Digital Pickpockets Works:

But digital pickpockets have found a way to use the same technology to line their pockets with goods and services bought with stolen credit cards. The newest smartphones are making it easy for thieves to steal and use stolen credit cards.

In an effort to speed up credit card transactions at the cash register, major credit card companies have adopted a "contactless" payment systems like MasterCard's Paypass. It relies on radio frequency identification or RFID technology. RFID enabled credit cards are embedded with a hidden microchip that stores all the account information necessary to complete a transaction.

It's the same information on a card's magnetic strip. The difference is how it's communicated during the transaction. The RFID enable card uses a hidden antenna to broadcast the information to an electronic credit card reader. The user completes the transaction by tapping the card over and electronic reader at the register. With the traditional card swipe, the account information is read off the magnetic strip.

Now smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung, Nokia, Motorola, LG and HTC are releasing phones that are "NFC" or Near Field Communications enabled. NFC is form of RFID technology that takes advantage of both transmitting and receiving data via the smartphone.

NFC enabled phones have the ability to read the data on microchip credit card but they do not come with the software to actually do it. Software is also needed to translate the information otherwise the credit card data is meaningless.

Enter the hackers or code writers (depending on your point of view) who have not only written software to make the credit card info meaning meaningful, but software that leverages the smartphone's ability to use NFC to transmit data to an electronic reader.

For years, digital pickpockets have built RFID readers that can electronically sniff someone's wallet or purse for account information embedded on an RFID enabled credit card. That step has all but been eliminated by the cell phone manufacturers. The newest versions of Android smartphones have the hardware to do the same thing and more.

With a firmware modification and a free open source application that can easily be found on the internet, the average person can turn their NFC enabled smartphone into a credit card stealing machine and then use the smartphone as that stolen credit card.

The Problem Solvers want to see for ourselves just how easy an NFC enable phone make the job of a digital pickpocket easier.

We modified a Motorola Razr and installed the software to test just how easy it would be scan a RFID enabled credit card and play it back to an electronic reader. 

Referred Links:

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Digital-pickpockets-using-technology-to-steal-credit-cards-208613001.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2948212/Will-victim-digital-pickpockets-Hacker-reveals-easy-steal-credit-card-numbers-air-SECONDS.html