September 14, 2011 09:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time
‘Electronic Pickpocketing’ Threat Worsened by Credit Card Industry Plan to Issue 1 Billion Contactless Payment Cards, According to Identity Stronghold
TAMPA, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--An ongoing effort by credit card companies to issue 1 billion radio frequency identification chip-enabled contactless cards by 2016 will dramatically increase the public’s susceptibility to identity and financial theft from electronic pickpocketing, Identity Stronghold announced today.
“We now know the industry is moving toward one billion contactless payment cards by 2016, and that’s a scary prospect for the public, considering the serious security flaws in these cards that remain easily exploitable and inexplicably unaddressed”
“We now know the industry is moving toward one billion contactless payment cards by 2016, and that’s a scary prospect for the public, considering the serious security flaws in these cards that remain easily exploitable and inexplicably unaddressed,” said Walt Augustinowicz, founder and CEO of Identity Stronghold.
Augustinowicz, who has interviewed with more than 60 radio and television outlets throughout the U.S., Canada, England and Australia, has demonstrated the threat and ease of “electronic pickpocketing” for each of them in an effort to get the credit card companies to be more honest with card holders.
“It’s very apparent that contactless cards are being pushed onto the cardholder without proper notification of the security risks, to include what preventative measures can be taken to avoid being electronically pickpocketed,” added Augustinowicz.
Credit and debit cards are not the only current contactless payment platforms. The new smart phones and ‘wearable wallets’ will each launch with various contactless payment technologies that high-tech thieves can remotely exploit without even touching their unsuspecting victims.
“I’ve also learned that the new cards issued by High Street’s Barclays, its market-leading Barclaycard brand, MBNA (Bank of America), and Virgin Money now implement contactless models, with no proof of identity needed for certain transactions, creating an electronic pickpocketers’ dream scenario,” warned Augustinowicz.
In the study conducted by viaForensics, 25 percent of the mobile banking programs analyzed received a "fail" rating. In the majority of cases, failures occurred due to the tester’s ability to recover a password or other sensitive data from a user's mobile device.
“Given what we know and continue to share with the media regarding Visa’s engineer warning of security glitches, continuing to push these products and others like it onto the cardholders, especially under the guise of convenience, is quite egregious,” Augustinowicz said.
The following video links connect to recent news stories about electronic pickpocketing:
Electronic Pickpocketing (Over 13M views)
Inside Edition Investigates Electronic Pickpocketing
About Identity Stronghold
Identity Stronghold is the leading provider of RFID security sleeves and badge holders to the U.S. government, and offers a full line of consumer products from card and badge holders, to purses and wallets. Identity Stronghold recognized the need for privacy protection for RFID chipped items and created a new industry in RFID shielding protection in 2005. Identity Stronghold Secure Bageholders® and Secure Sleeves® are listed on the GSA FIPS 201 approved products list to meet the requirements of preventing the reading of contactless RFID chips.
Visit them at http://www.idstronghold.com/
