If your organization uses smart cards with RFID technology, you’ll need to pay close attention to security in the coming months.

A student at the University of Virginia found a way to break the encryption code of RFID chips in up to 2 billion smartcards used to open doors and board public transportation systems.

Working with two researchers in Germany, investigators found the problem lies in weak encryption in the MiFare Classic, an 48-bit key length RFID chip from NXP Semiconductors.

Now that the encryption’s been broken, a hacker would only need a laptop, a scanner and a few minutes to get the cryptographic key to an RFID door lock and create a duplicate card to open it at will.

Anyone needing a highly secure smart card should make sure there’s layered security and not just depend on the chip’s encryption.

There are other, more secure chips available, but the MiFare Classic is one of the most common in the entry-level smartcard market.

Info: snipurl.com/228d0

Tags: encryption, hackers, RFID, security, smartcards