Free «Case Study Four» Essay Paper

In the modern period, the world is drastically changing due to the inventions that arose from the technological advancements. Among the developments there is the use of Radio Frequency Identification. It consists of electronic cards or badges with a chip that stores the owner’s information. The means of accessing this data is through scanning the card with a scanner that decodes it (Mohammad, 2008). This essay seeks to examine the kind of radio frequency safety and security that is necessary for credit and the other cards that bear the chips, means that companies use to safeguard credit cards, as well as the ways how criminals could utilize the fear of cards to commit crimes.

To begin with, in the case study, a lady, known as Sara Wallace, went to Strickland’s Gas Station. Upon holding her card in front of the fuel pump, the machine brought a screen, welcoming Sara by depicting her names and instructing her to approve a purchase. Shocked by such a development, she stepped on her card to damage the chip (Case Study Four). Her actions show that it is appropriate to remove the scan-n-go feature of the credit cards that is the chip that automatically transmits the owner’s information to a scanner machine. By eliminating this chip, the user can utilize the card reader instead of scanning. Apart from removing the chip, the firms may also borrow Ashley’s idea of making a protective cover for the cards or passports to prevent the chip from unnecessary exposure. Ashley is a lady who sold the idea to many people that emailed her asking for solution to this issue (Case Study Four). Her plan involved creating an aluminum foil as a lining for the wallets/card holders to protect the cards from scanners.

Another way of securing the tickets is through disabling the scan-only purchases and replacing them with a combination of scanning and password entry (Alcorn, 2012). Doing so, the card owner will be in a position to validate his/her identity through a password after scanning. The move will deter hackers from using the radio frequency information to buy stolen cards. For instance, in Sara’s case, the card should have requested for a password after scanning her information.

Encryption technology is a one more way of securing cards from criminals. This method is appropriate for curbing tag cloning. Also, a rolling code is useful for changing the card identifier information after every scan to eliminate the usefulness of the observed responses (Mohammad, 2008). In addition, this technology enables the Challenge Response Authentication that foils the repetitive message between the tag and scanner by asking for a cryptographically coded response from the chip (Mohammad, 2008).

It should be mentioned that companies engage in various ways of protecting the chip as a means of safeguarding their customers. For example, some firms sell foil sleeves to block the transmission of information. However, it may not be a perfect solution. The others sell protective wallets as well as passport pouches to prevent unwarranted exposure of the bearer’s information. An example of the most useful sleeves and wallets are those that have a faraday cage, combined with a leather exterior/outer cover (Alcorn, 2012). Also, some firms disable the radio frequency chips for the customers who wish to deactivate them. In such a way, the clients’ information can be safe from unwanted exposure that may lead to scanning or cloning of their tags by the hackers.

In spite of all these facts, the radio frequency identification is still a blessing to the criminals who use technological devices to steal from the card holders. The culprits purchase portable Radio Frequency Identification scanners and use them to acquire information from the unsuspecting card users. After that, they clone or create a replica of the card and use it to purchase goods while disguising as the owners of the original card. When a scanner acquires information about the card holder, it sends the data to a computer that facilitates the card’s generation. The gangs also take advantage of a rewritable chip to delete the owner’s information and replace it with theirs (Alcorn, 2012).

Furthermore, criminals use Radio Frequency Identification tags for businesses to pose as bona fide employees of the firm. As a result, they have physical access to the business organizations such as supermarkets and the other large retail outlets. Thanks to it, the thugs can access the critical entrepreneurial areas and orchestrate crimes such as lowering the prices of commodities that they wish to purchase and in such a way, defrauding the business (Alcorn, 2012). Thus, these crimes can cause a lot of harm to the respective businesses.

In conclusion, cards with Radio Frequency Identification chips are very dangerous. They expose the owner’s information as it can be witnessed in Sara’s case as well as in cases of the other people, who sought assistance of Ashley. Thus, the possible solutions to this problem are removal or deactivation of the chip, creation of a protective cover, adoption of password use as well as use of encryption technology such as rolling codes and challenge response authentication. Among the attempts made by the firms to protect card owners are the use of foils, especially those lined with a faraday cage and leather exterior. Nevertheless, criminals still take advantage of the cards to clone counterfeits, as well as hacking the identity of firm workers.