Here's Why

Radio ID skim scam

The Access Card Bill proposes to allow the computer on a card to act as a cash card for emergency relief as well as an ID card storing all your personal information.

By an amazing coincidence, the "Pay Pass" digital cash card is being trialled in Australia this month by Mastercard. Its RFID. Radio Frequency IDentification allows people with card readers to access your information or cash remotely, without you having to remove the card from your wallet.

Hackers have built devices that passively "listen" to the radio traffic between the card and a reader to get your personal information or steal your digital cash Its called "skimming".

The Australian Department of Immigration bought into RFID cards which is a shame because Security experts have already hacked your RFID Passport

Will the Australian Access Card with its biometric face recognition, its huge store of personal information and its digital cash use RFID?
This question was asked in Parliament in 2006 by the West Australian Senator Christopher Evans. Minister Joe Hockey refused to rule it out:

Question 8. Can DHS rule out the employment of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology within the Smartcard?
Answer 8. Whether or not the access card uses RFID technology is a matter for decision by
government.

You can stop the Government tracking you, the fraudsters stealing your identity and the thieves stealing your digital cash by building an RFID-proof wallet with foil and duct-tape.

Could KPMG who won the tender for the card indicate whether the models they sell come with RFID normally?

1998 KPMG White Paper on Smart cards. It sounds exactly like the Access Card, including the digital cash.

Then in 2003 they sold biometric RFID access cards for the US Department of Defense

In 2005 they explained the many benefits for RFID cards

I wonder if they'll just sell us the same model? Why won't Joe Hockey play ball and rule out RFID?

References:
http://www.the-gold-blog.com/?p=186
http://www.rfidproductnews.com/issues/2006.07/18.php
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/52270.html
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/fapa_ctte/estimates/bud_0607/human_services/hs35.pdf
http://www.rpi-polymath.com/ducttape/RFIDWallet.php
http://crec.mccombs.utexas.edu/works/articles/smartcardswp.html
http://www.rfidnews.org/news/2003/01/30/department-of-defense-selects-bearingpoint-for-third-phase-of-biometric-demonstrations/

http://www.kpmg.com.au/newsletters/LOBS/ice_com_ment-September2005.htm

About the author: Ian Woolf lives in Sydney, has a degree in Applied Science, worked as a solar astronomer, software engineer, systems programmer, webmaster, research assistant, Cisco CCNA tutor, Physics laboratory demonstrator, Computational Theory lecturer, and subject coordinator; while changing his career to freelance writing and broadcasting. Listen to Ian on the Diffusion radio science show on radio 2SER 107.3FM Monday at 6:30pm in Sydney or streaming audio on www.2ser.com, or listen to the Diffusion podcasts. You should follow me on twitter, here