Time to play the security card
As GEORGE NICHOLS finds out, there is now a small solution to the issue of cyber fraud
The powerful electronic device protects all the cards and documents in your wallet
CONTACTLESS payment cards are all the rage. They speed up shopping and they speed up our lives. What the banks do not tell us, though, is how they can speed things up for criminals too. If that valuable information – your name, address and credit card details – are ready to send to the till, then it can also be pinged over to crooks, who are increasingly savvy to the hi-tech world of the ordinary person on the street.
And it is on the street – or on the bus or train, or in a pub – that you can find yourself electronically mugged. Portable devices can siphon off all those details, leaving gangs free to attach them to another card and go on a spending spree.
Extraordinarily, anyone can download a card-reader app on an Android smartphone in two minutes.
Cyber criminals can buy a widely available NFC (near-field communication) card reader on the web for less than £30 and utilise dark web software to see much more.
NFC is a set of communication protocols that enable two electronic devices, one of which is usually a portable device like a smartphone, to establish communication when they are within feet of each other. The contactless buying limit might only be £30 but someone with your info only needs to pop into a few shops to rack up a sizeable bill, or clone your card to spend up to your credit limit. It is equally possible for someone up to 3ft away to make off with information from your travel card and even your biometric passport.
What you need is security and that comes in the form of SkimGuard Active. SkimGuard, the powerful, credit card-sized electronic device protects all the cards and documents in your wallet.
As soon as it senses a skimmer’s incoming RFID (radio frequency identification) signal, the integrated circuitry within the card generates an electronic force field 3.5in either side of the card which blocks and scrambles any incoming data request.
SKIMGUARD Active was launched across Europe at the beginning of September at the IFA Electronics Show in Berlin. It has since been hailed as a breakthrough in the fight against cyber fraud and contactless card theft.
SkimGuard Active incorporates patented technology and needs no battery. It activates as soon as it detects an incoming radio signal, whether from a shop’s card reader or a ‘skimmer’. The card uses the power of the incoming radio signal to activate its circuits, powering up a red LED warning light in the card, and amplifying the signal (on the 13.56Mhz radio frequency used for contactless payments and passports) to generate the protective force field.
With 90 million contactless cards in circulation in the UK and with a card being skimmed every two seconds in the USA, the danger is ever-present.