Breaking into high-security areas is going to be a whole lot trickier in 2035, if this 2-inch electronic-ID has anything to say about it. The good news is, it’s guaranteed to get your good side.
Placing a fake Craigslist ad for random strangers to call your ex-boyfriend at work to “talk dirty to him” may be funny, but it can now also get you charged with identity theft.
A software engineer/landord with high-level security clearance has been charged with stealing the identity of David Welch, a former tenant, using a NASA computer at the Kennedy Space Center.
According to the bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec (.pdf), identity thieves aren’t getting nearly as rich off of your stolen or “misplaced” data as they used to. As the AP reports, the sheer glut of personal information being pilfered these days, combined with a falling U.S. dollar and fierce competition among identity hawkers, has driven the prices for such stolen data down to “bargain-basement levels.”
Researchers say that internet fraudsters are therefore doing what any self-respecting salesman would do: offering volume discounts. Currently, some stolen credit-card numbers are begin sold in batches of 500 for as low as US$200. That’s 40 cents for each number, less than half the price observed during the first half of 2007, according to the report.
Xeni of Boing Boing, Boing Boing TV and internet fame shows us that anyone—including the shady looking dude behind you in line—can hack an RFID-enabled credit card for just US$8 worth of equipment. All it takes is US$8 and a trip to eBay to get a reader, which you can then take and flail around to read in people’s info. With their name, credit card number and expiration date, you can go online and get to shopping. Scary? Yes. But you can get around this hack if your wallet is made out of stainless steel or any similar material that won’t jab you in the arse when you sit down. [Boing Boing]
