

Mythbusters RFID episode banned - bootload
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09/03/mythbusters-rfid-episode-banned/1

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billswift
Here are some places Bruce Schneier talks about RFID, notice most of these are
about RFID in passports, which is definitely public interest, and a big risk:

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/02/cloning_rfid_p...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/02/cloning_rfid_pa_1.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hackers_clone_...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hackers_clone_r.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/rfid_passports...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/rfid_passports.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/rfid_passport_...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/rfid_passport_s.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/uk_rfid_passpo...](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/uk_rfid_passpor.html)

[http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/rfid_car_keys....](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/rfid_car_keys.html)

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ErrantX
There was a UK TV show (The Real Hustle) which demonstrated Passport skimming
at in one episode. They had a scanner in the bag and just hung around and
airport bumping into people till they got lucky.

Scary stuff.

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rudle
Published: 3rd September 2008

Didn't you guys go to HOPE?

EDIT: link

<http://www.thelasthope.org/talks.html>

~~~
wheels
Discussions from over a year ago:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=294831>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=294455>

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idm
I assume it makes no difference if Texas Instruments is on the record saying,
"...it was waiting “for Mythbusters to let us know when they were planning on
showing the segment” when they heard “that the storyline had changed and they
were pursuing a different angle which did not require our help."

I mean, that sounds like a line from the Godfather. Creepy.

All the same, this issue is a matter of the audience, not of producing a good
debunking of RFID. Any debunking that wouldn't be viewed by millions of
people, via Discovery, would presumably be "all good."

I think the disappointment, then, is that we really wanted to see an
entertaining and thorough deconstruction of RFID... and while hackers can be
thorough, they don't have the audience to justify producing something that is
highly entertaining.

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sp332
The Mifare-cracking presentation at 23C3 (Chaos Communication Congress, in
Berlin) <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=825150>

~~~
biohacker42
This should be it's own separate submission. Please submit this as it's own
story sp332.

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bootload
I was watching this video (Adam Savage : FAILURE - Defcon 17 Talk) ~
<http://www.vimeo.com/6006731> and wanted to find out why some random hacker
asked about RFID.

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jhancock
I love that the article had a huge American Express ad served up with it!

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dca
Is this the first documented case of a MythBusters metamyth?

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smhinsey
I understand that things of this nature have happened before. In one of the
segments from his well-known talk on failure, Adam Savage mentions that it
happened with (I believe) Crest over teeth whitening strips.

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sneakums
Seems more like it was nobbled than banned.

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bprater
So what is the basic hack you RFID hackers?

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anigbrowl
MitM + Brute force against weak-ass key. German, but not necessary for basic
understanding: [http://sar.informatik.hu-
berlin.de/research/publications/SAR...](http://sar.informatik.hu-
berlin.de/research/publications/SAR-PR-2008-21/SAR-PR-2008-21_.pdf) or skip
the theory: <http://www.openpcd.org/Downloads.releases.0.html>

