blog.wired.com — Dutch security researchers rode the London Underground free for a day after easily using an ordinary laptop to clone the "smartcards" commuters use to pay fares, a hack that highlights a serious security flaw because similar cards provide access to thousands of government offices, hospitals and schools.
Jun 24, 2008 View in Crawl 4
neocr0nJun 25, 2008
First off there is no ID card system in the UK as we speak and I don't think problems with a scheme still in the planning can count as a "disaster". Retinal scanning at UK airports was only trialed by under 100,000 passengers and I can't remember hearing of any problems. As for the NHS its a massive ambitious system and while it does have problems that are causing delays its again not implemented and is not planned to enter into use until 2012. Problems while still putting systems together are pretty standard and if you want problems to surface your going to want them before your systems are up and running. I just don't see how any of those are disasters.
revengJun 26, 2008
You're also missing the point entirely. Yes, they used their hack to get a free ride, but the security implications are much farther reaching, since the same vulnerability exists in ID cards for major institutions. The story isn't that they got to ride the tube for free, it's that they could have used the same thing to walk into almost any government building. That's scary.
workharderscumJun 26, 2008
Can't you also buy things with your oyster card now? Not big purchases, but I'm sure I heard that you can use them in some shops.Also, the £100 part of the analogy is a one off cost - its more like spending £100 on the equipment for copying keys.
Closed AccountJun 26, 2008
that's what she said!
dontaskagainJun 26, 2008
This happened months ago, i even did a presentation on this breach for university in April
dullnationJun 26, 2008
For the record, I loved Red Alert ;)
Closed AccountJun 26, 2008
Whether the card is magnetic stripe, rfid or a combination card you can buy a reader for it somewhere. It is still called a reader thats not a term specific to magnetic cards.
helpfulcornJun 26, 2008
Why was the parent dugg down?I think it's slightly between hacking and cracking. While hacking is about exploring, everyone from this point forward that knows about this will use it for destruction/exploitation/theft, i.e. cracking
simonf71Jul 1, 2008
Anything is possible with the right tools