We are surrounded by a large number of devices that facilitate the task in our day to day. We are talking about any equipment connected to the network, mobiles, computers … There are also what is known as RFID, which is basically a technology that allows us to exchange information wirelessly, with certain peculiarities, for example, to make a contactless payment with the card . Now, could they attack devices that use RFID ?
What does RFID mean
RFID is the technology that uses radio frequency to send and receive information over a short distance. An example is the one we have given when making a contactless payment with a bank card. We have to bring that card to a reader just a few centimeters away for it to work properly. Unlike other technologies such as Bluetooth, it cannot communicate beyond that, a few centimeters.
Basically it is necessary to have an emitting device that has an RFID chip and another receiving device that also has this technology. In this way we can carry out communication between the two.
The frequency used by RFID chips may vary depending on the device we use and also according to the country in which we are, due to regulatory issues. Generally we can say that there is low frequency RFID, which is <135 KHz, and high frequency RFID, which is 13.56 MHz. There are also higher frequencies.
Could they hack an RFID device?
That is perhaps one of the questions that many users who use this type of technology ask themselves. Could we be attacked and have potential intruders access this information? The answer is yes. Hackers have demonstrated the ability to attack RFID devices. They have demonstrated how easy it is to obtain information within the chips that use this technology. Since some chips are rewritable, cyber criminals can even delete or replace RFID information with their own data.
It wouldn’t be too complicated for a hacker with the necessary skills to build your own RFID scanner if you so choose. It is easy to buy parts for the scanner, and once built someone can scan RFID tags and get information from them. This logically creates a certain concern among users who use this technology.
Undoubtedly, the main concern is when using bank cards. We have mentioned that we can pay using this technology. It is very common and is really widespread. Simply just bring the card closer to the reader and we can make the payment. What we are exchanging is information. They could bring a reader to our pocket and read the card, for example.
Many users even choose to use card reader blockers . It is simply a kind of plastic with which we cover the card and even if we stuck the card to the reader, it would not be able to exchange information. In this way we can walk calmly through very crowded areas and in certain places where they could use this technique, without having problems.
Now, although technically it is possible to carry out this type of attack, the truth is that in reality it is something very hypothetical. We have seen that there must be a minimum distance between both devices, so that makes a possible attack very difficult.
Still, can we avoid such attacks? As we have mentioned it is possible to make use of RFID blockers. They are simply a cover that we put on the bank card in this case and avoid possible risks.
However, the main scams come when making a payment for insecure pages, that our card is physically stolen or that we use weak bank passwords. Therefore, it is vital that we emphasize this type of security measures to prevent problems that compromise our cards and devices. The objective is none other than to avoid cyber attacks that can affect any computer that we are using in our day to day.