[MUSIC PLAYING]
This episode of TEKZiLLA
is sponsored by domain.com.
We got an email from
Tom who writes in,
"I picked up on
Shannon's notes on Defcon
and her comments about RFID.
How about discussing this
topic, in particular one,
how can you tell if a credit or
debit card has the chip on it,
and two, can you test out
various sleeves and wallets
to see if they actually work.
According "Consumer
Reports," a lot of these
devices are no better
than aluminum foil.
Thanks, Tom."
Don't knock the power
of aluminum foil.
Oh, I'm not.
[LAUGHING]
Tom might be.
Aluminum foil does work.
That's why you see a
lot of people run around
with RFID-blocking
wallets, and they just
made it out of aluminum foil.
I mean, literally,
this is aluminum foil.
We wrapped it around my phone,
and now you cannot call me.
Let's see if it works though.
I want to see if
this actually works.
So I'm calling you right now,
so it should transfer and start
ringing.
[PHONE RINGING]
So that's my phone ringing.
Do you hear anything?
No.
Is it vibrating at all?
No.
Your volume's up?
Mm-hmm.
OK.
We just tested this
before I re-wrapped it
with aluminum foil.
It works.
[TELEPHONE RINGING]
So it's kind of funny.
If for some reason you're
traveling in a foreign country,
and you're afraid they're
going to walk out of Customs
in the foreign country, and
somebody's going to be blue
snarfing or-- blue snarfing--
[LAUGHING]
How old school can I get?
If you think somebody's
actually scanning RFID tags,
and you don't want
to be scanned.
You can use that.
Or if you are concerned
about your credit cards,
with RFID tags
being in them, you
could wrap them
in aluminum foil.
This is a little--
[LAUGHING]
Less than fabulous looking.
It's not that fabulous
looking, so if you do want to--
But it works.
Pay for something a little bit
more fashionable, or something
that looks a little
bit more legit--
say if you work for a government
contractor or something like
that-- there are a couple of
options that I did pick up
at DEF CON, so I wanted to
run through those real quick.
The first one is called
the Privacy Case,
so I picked up this
one for about $75.
It's basically just
a simple metal case
with a very, very
hard gasket right here
that closes off any if and
any buts, GPS signals, RFIDs,
cellphone signals.
It basically turns
your phone into a brick
while it's inside there.
That's pretty awesome actually.
If you want to test
it out, go ahead
and stick your phone in there.
What have you got, a nexus
I've got my Moto G.
So you've got to close
it nice and tight.
Make sure it's shut, and
then I'll give you a call.
Let it start ringing.
And such stylish colors.
And so stylish.
I got it laser
etched the last time.
I thought this would be like
beat this with a hammer.
[TELEPHONE RINGING]
So I'm ringing.
It's almost like--
You feel any vibrations?
No calls?
No, we're not
getting called here.
It works.
Very stylish, and you've got
something actually big enough
to hold a passport, too.
Yeah, so this last one is
called the black hole of death.
No, not really.
It's called the Black
Hole Faraday Bag.
So this one starts
as little as $32.00.
The one I picked up
is $45 I believe,
and they go all the way
up to in the hundreds,
depending on the
laptop size that you
want to fit in this case.
But it pretty much is supposed
to do the exact same thing.
So we tested this not
only with that, my phone,
but also with a clipper
card-- definitely
worked as well, so interesting.
It's pretty crazy because
it's essentially a wire mesh.
It's a wire mesh, yeah.
Just kind of bare.
That's actually wire mesh.
It's a mini Faraday
Cage for your phone.
[LAUGHING]
And you fold it over.
Not so much on the weather
resistant side for that one.
You probably won't
keep water out,
and things like that, since
it's just a little Velcro
switch, but hey!
You can just see the screen
glowing through the mesh.
You can see the screen glow, and
they even have window options,
too, on their website,
so there's plenty of ones
that you could
purchase that way,
too, if you want
something that's
a little bit more pretty.
But yeah, they both work
which is pretty interesting,
but of course, still
aluminum foil is an option.
And if you're curious
about whether or not
there's an RFID tag
in your credit card,
look for the PayPass logo, or
one of these crazy brass things
in the front, or whatever
that metal is there.
So you see those a lot
in European credit cards,
not so much in America,
but I've started
seeing them in
increasing numbers.
The general consensus is that
American credit card companies
are being jerks for not
implementing the RFID tag
technology because it's
going to help decrease
the amount of fraud
that's out there.
I mean, it's interesting,
because we're
looking at a Visa
card, a generic credit
card, American Express card.
I think these are
going to be everywhere
in a couple of years.
I absolutely agree.
Just this year I've gotten two
of my credit cards replaced
with the RFID versions of
them, so I'm very, very happy
about that personally, because
it is a little bit more secure.
We wait, ladies and
gentlemen, with bated breath.
You don't have to wait though.
There's more TEKZiLLA
coming right up,
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
