Cracking Atlanta Subway's Poorly-Encrypted RFID Smart Cards Is a Breeze 139
McGruber writes "Seven metro Atlanta residents are facing theft, fraud, and racketeering charges for allegedly selling counterfeit MARTA Breeze cards. Breeze cards are stored-value smart cards that passengers use as part of an automated fare collection system which the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority introduced to the general public in October 2006. Breeze cards are supplied by Cubic Transportation Systems, an American company that provides automated fare collection equipment and services to the mass transit industry. At the time of this slashdot submission, the Wikipedia page for the Breeze Card (last modified on 2 August 2013 at 14:52) says: 'The Breeze Card uses the MIFARE smart-card system from Dutch company NXP Semiconductors, a spin-off from Philips. The disposable, single-use, cards are using on the MIFARE Ultralight while the multiple-use plastic cards are the MIFARE Classic cards. There have been many concerns about the security of the system, mainly caused by the poor encryption method used for the cards.'"
Inevitable... (Score:5, Interesting)
Another card scam... (Score:4, Interesting)
.
Fare cards, gift cards, credit and debit cards used at Target, etc.,.etc,. etc...
When are we going to make our erzatz money secure?
Quick question (Score:5, Interesting)
Out of curiosity, how much revenue comes in from fares, and how much expense goes out in fare maintenance?
A lot of metro systems charge fares in addition to getting public support from taxes. Has anyone thought to tally the costs of the fare system compared to the income? Things like cost of the machines, maintenance of the machines, maintenance of the turnstiles, accounting, law enforcement &c... all these things add up.
Even if the fares bring in revenue, it's probably minor. Most of the cost goes into collecting the fares, so most of that value is wasted.
The economy would get a boost if that money were freed up to be spent by consumers, and doing so would help the people who need it the most (ie - poor people).
This whole thing seems like a fabricated problem - a system that forces people to spend money just for the sake of spending it. Then spend more money reimplementing the system when the original system is found to have flaws, then spend countless hours and resources in enforcement and prosecution.
Just get rid of it. Let the money go into the economy.