June 2013

Electronic Pickpocketing is a very real problem.

In this report by KOMO 4 News in Seattle, it shows how easy it is to be electronically pick-pocketed. Now with the influx of new smartphones on the market that are Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled teamed with free apps anyone can now skim your credit cards and use them with ease. Credit Card Protection is needed now more than ever.

It seems even the card issuing companies like MasterCard are finally admitting (although with smoke and mirrors) there is an issue.

The official response by MasterCard

It’s aware of the situation…

The circumstances under which it can occur in the real world are extremely rare

We don’t consider this to be a serious threat to our cardholders.

Beth Kitchener
Mastercard Worldwide

Sounds a lot like a position from a company who has invested billions in the roll-out of this vulnerable technology and have accessed the risk (to them) not to their customers and that risk is acceptable.

It seems they have recently changed position, as not long ago they told us they have never heard of a case of electronic pickpocketing being reported.? Which in itself is rather strange as how are you to know you where ePickpocketted in the first place as no physical loss of cards, so who would know when and how it happened.

If your looking to protect yourself from this type of growing crime discover how ARMOURCARD protects your credit cards

BUY ARMOURCARD NOW

The Australian Newspaper runs a story on the new wave of electronic pickpocketing coming to a wallet near you.

In the weekend version of ‘The Australian’ newspaper (8.6.13), two reporters Adam Shand & Ben Westcott report on how electronic pickpocketing is now a real concern.

We applaud Adam, Ben and The Australian Newspaper for bringing this to the attention of the general public.

Now as we have reported in a previous ARMOURCARD blog post, there are now FREE apps that allow you to skim card data with your Near Field Enabled (NFC) smartphones. These include the Samsung Galaxy 3 or Galaxy 4, latest Windows phones and rumors are that the next generation of iPhone will also be NFC enabled. What that means to you and I is everyone with a smartphone potentially will be able to use that phone to electronically pickpocket your data without you even knowing it.

We did our own bench testing

At ARMOURCARD we don’t claim to be experts in hacking or skimming.? However we were able to download a range of apps that were capable of extracting card data and applied them to testing. We found that the apps were able to extract different data from a range of cards some even including the cardholders name . The point being that if a couple of novices could easily obtain the equipment and means to do this, what would a seasoned professional be capable of accomplishing? We were not comfortable with the ease at which our personal data could be compromised. ARMOURCARD provides the first electronic solution to this vulnerability.

What do the card issuers say:

In the article a spokes person for Visa, Judy Shaw, said that it was:

“technically possible to lift some details from its cards using NFC scanning technology”

In the article it was said that “the level of security was extremely high and contact-less payments were as safe as traditional cards”. Traditional cards do not have a history of being secure. The size of the fraud industry which has emerged from the lack of card security is living testament to this. Why else would financial institutions limit? transactions to under $100 if there was no cause for concern?? Does that sound secure to you?

If you are wanting to secure your identity today, then get ‘active RFID & NFC protection from ARMOURCARD.

 

Why risk your identity? Buy ARMOURCARD today!

 

To view the full article click on the image below.

paper-clip-aust-article

Global privacy champion Dr Katherine Albrecht talks about the next wave of RFID crime.

Dr Katherine Albrecht has been the champion of outing the RFID industries plans to track every purchase and track you via RFID for over 10 years.

I have recently connected with Katherine and I am sending her an ARMOURCARD.

Hopefully once Katherine sees how effective our ‘Active RFID & NFC Protection’ technology is she will also say to her following that now there is an effective solution to the vulnerabilities surrounding this contact-less technology that is? in-use today and not just advise requesting a non RFID enabled card from your banks.

With ARMOURCARD’s technology, you actually get the best of both worlds.

Firstly, you get security from being skimmed this way as we jam RFID & NFC signals so no RFID reader can interrogate your cards,

Secondly, you get the convenience to use these contact-less payment terminals. We have incorporated a capacity switch on every ARMOURCARD which enables you to temporarily turn of ARMOURCARD’s jamming so you can still get the convenience of being able to use ‘tap&go’ payment terminals.

Find out more what makes ARMOURCARD the best solution here

If you are interested in Katherine’s book called ‘Spychips’ you can purchase it through Amazon here or through the Amazon widget located on the left side of the page.