RFID hackers devise security tool

The team that produced the RFDump research/hacker tool for cloning and altering data stored on radio-frequency ID tags has now come out with a product to thwart RFID hackers, says Wired.com.

German security researcher Lukas Grunwald, who made headlines two years ago for uncovering security vulnerabilities in new electronic passports being adopted by the US and other countries, created RFDump with colleague Boris Wolf in 2004.

Now the two have created RF-Wall to help thwart RFID fraud and attacks against e-passports, electronic access cards and payment cards.

The Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) in Australia is the first federal government department to switch to smart cards for its 6 000 employees, states Computer World.

Federal government CIO, Ann Steward, together with DEEWR CIO, Glenn Archer, will officially announce the smart card roll-out at a briefing in Canberra later today which will include a live demonstration of the new technology.

DEEWR has taken a leading role in the development of a whole-of-government staff identification Framework, alongside other agencies including Centrelink, which will also release a new staff card this year.

Students at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio have recently been exposed to square black and white bar codes, called EZ Codes, across their campus as part of a field test by a firm called Mobile Discovery, reports Tech Radar.

Various mobile Internet applications provide bus timetables, competitions and news alerts to students' phones after they use their cameras to scan the codes and access the associated sites.

According to the latest IHT report on the trial, take up has been low. It mentions various reasons, including a ham-fisted sexism blunder, but hits the nail on the head by concluding - as we have before - that the codes are really just not that useful.