nitefang

nitefang t1_j5dhnqq wrote

Reply to comment by disruptioncoin in TIL The writer for "Die Hard with a Vengeance" was investigated by the FBI after they revealed that his story's plan of robbing the Federal Reserve through a breached subway wall would have worked by fortifier22

Like I said, DEF-CON proved it was possible forever ago, but there haven't been large scale operations doing long range skimming. When it does happen it is done almost like a pick pocket or via a nefarious skimmer attached to a genuine POS.

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nitefang t1_j5c66if wrote

Reply to comment by mindspork in TIL The writer for "Die Hard with a Vengeance" was investigated by the FBI after they revealed that his story's plan of robbing the Federal Reserve through a breached subway wall would have worked by fortifier22

It is really interesting though, I just did some VERY SHALLOW research into RFID security because I'm about to be traveling internationally. It turns out that paying anything extra for an RFID blocking wallet or passport holder is essentially a waste of money.

Short list of reasons is

  1. For most credit cards, you can't make a transaction with only the RFID info which could be potentially skimmed and copied. Even when you don't have to enter a PIN number or anything, there is a verification process going on that can't be saved and used again later.
  2. While security experts and "white-hat/grey-hat hackers" at the DEF-CON "hacker convention" proved it is possible to skim RFID data at long range, it appears no criminals have found a way to use this technology to steal information. At least there aren't any known cases of it being done to steal credit card data for nefarious reasons successfully.
  3. In the case of Passports, the information transmitted is encrypted, for it to be useful to skim a passport you'd also need access to an encrypted and secured government database.
  4. For large purchases and withdrawals, you should be required to enter a pin number.

​

I won't pretend to be an expert on this, I don't fully grasp how various public-key encryption technology works (tried to learn a few times, always seems like magic or math only a genius can understand). But here is an article I found.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/are-rfid-blocking-products-worth-your-money-we-asked-an-expert/

TL;DR: RFID isn't even that insecure, at least not anymore, I'm not sure what the credit card companies were freaking out about. If you are really worried about it, RFID wallets aren't too expensive, and just check for close-range skimmers by pulling on card readers to make sure they are real.

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nitefang t1_iu4kgbt wrote

Reply to comment by ANOKNUSA in TIL Devon Allen, track & field athlete/Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, was disqualified in the World Athletic Championships for a controversial false start. The starting blocks measured his reaction time from the time the gun went off at 0.099, which is 0.001 seconds faster than legally allowed. by The_Critical_Cynic

Is it standardized where the official with the starter pistol stands?

There is a theory I like but wouldn’t call reliably proven that says humans and animals often subconsciously taken in information and even subconsciously analyze it to come to conclusions they aren’t can’t explain the reasoning for. In context this is more about short term things, not abstract ideas. It is relevant in that if the theory is true it would mean some of the runners could be taking in information like the official holding the starting pistol a certain way and even the movement of their finger and be reacting to that making it seem like their reaction to the shot is very short. Though some put forward this theory could even include information you couldn’t even learn to look for, like a tiny reflection a hundred feet away that shows the ref (behind the runner) flexing their finger to pull the trigger.

I like the theory but it is probably BS.

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