Dr Anton Chuvakin Blog (Original)

Security writing since the mid-2000s. New posts are mirrored from Anton on Security on Medium.

A fun consequence of RFID growth - extreme paranoia

Looks like there would be some correlation between broader RFID adoption and attendance of psychiatric hospitals. Here is fun bit of RFID paranoia on [fake] "RFID chips" in US bills that allow satellite tracking. But it goes further from there:

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Business (Cache Point): "Some students have not picked up their new ID cards through the re-carding project, which ends today, because of a rumor that there is a locator chip inside the IDs so Purdue can track their whereabouts.Some students have not picked up their new ID cards through the re-carding project, which ends today, because of a rumor that there is a locator chip inside the IDs so Purdue can track their whereabouts."

So, how far will this go? Will folks be afraid of having anything (hey, in a few years it might have an RFID chip?) If not, where does it stop? Let's see:
  • fear of cell-phones
  • fear of WiFi access
  • fear of WAP/wireless access
  • fear of anything small and expensive (it might have a built-in RFID)
  • fear of IDs (they will soon have RFIDs)

What else? :-) What is the solution, really?

New posts appear first on Anton on Security on Medium. This blog keeps a copy, plus the archive going back to the mid-2000s.

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