WTH is RFID?!?

April 01, 2014

What the heck is RFID?

RFID stands for real food is delicious and is a campaign to end the obesity epidemic in North America by promoting more natural and healthy food choices across the continent……..Or Maybe it stands for radio frequency identification and is used in many applications to store small amounts of information and transmit the data via radio frequency. But so what?.....

Well what if you found out that RFID data can contain sensitive information about your financials & social security? What if that data could be stolen due to the fact that RFID technology is constantly in danger of being scanned by an infamous RFID thief? The important truth about RFID is that it’s quite easy to access the data in a chip simply by scanning it with the proper equipment.

Many new credit and even debit cards have RFID chips for use in the new 'tap' feature where the chip is not necessary and the card is simply waved by the payment machine and scanned. Passports are also now sporting RFID chips and can be scanned just as easily as your 'tap' credit and debit cards. RFID theft is therefore a relevant concern for many of us and is a popular new pastime at airports and other tourist locations around the globe. So should you therefore protect your assets when traveling by carrying all your funds in a lump sum of cash? Leave the credit cards at home to prevent having your funds electronically pick-pocketed and stick with the risk of traditional pick-pocketers? If these don’t sound like good ideas to you then consider one of the many RFID blocking products now available on the market from PacSafe or Eagle Creek. Options exist as simple as sleeves that accommodate one or two cards, to full wallets and packs.