RFID credit cards get security boost

Researchers from the Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have come up with a way of stopping radio frequency identification (RFID) snooping, TechEye reports.

Researchers are working on a credit card 'switch', which turns the card 'on' and 'off'. It would require the user to hold on to a certain part of the card while it was being read.

While scanning credit cards rather than swiping them is convenient, the need for better security derives from unforeseen loopholes in the technology that have been exposed since its introduction, Digital Trends states.

The new technology, designed by the Pittsburgh researchers, “enables the RFID or NFC credit card to be disabled if left in a pocket or lying on a surface and [makes it] unreadable by thieves using portable scanners”, professor Marlin Mickle explains.

Contactless cards already use several security measures to thwart potential card thieves from grabbing useful account data over the air, American Banker says.

For example, a contactless card transaction requires a one-time-use code the card provides each time it is tapped against a reader. If that code is stolen, it cannot be reused.