What Are Some Dangers of RFID Credit Cards?
Some credit cards are embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags that bear information readable via radio waves from up to several yards away. The potential for intercepting RFID transmissions presents dangers to your security.NotificationCredit card companies may notify you if they embed an RFID tag in your credit card. But they are not required to do so by law, which means that you may be exposed to the dangers of RFID credit cards without knowing it.EncryptionCredit card vendors have argued that because data on RFID credit cards is encrypted, a thief with an RFID reader could pick up only gibberish from a scanned RFID tag. However, researchers Tom Heydt-Benjamin and Kevin Fu have shown that sensitive information is not always encrypted on RIFD credit cards. Even encrypted data may be vulnerable to hacking.TradeoffsSome RFID credit cards require cardholders to use a PIN for added security, but only for large purchases. Charles Walton of Inside Contactless, which makes R
