Disabling a RFID Chip

[uberman]

I understand that using a block of nice hardwood and a few good swats with a hammer will destroy a RFID chip. Of course, it may leave marks. There are some reccomendations I've read such as placing the chip in a microwave oven, but I believe that might burn the card. I'm not doing anything illegal with a passport or something, I'm simplify trying to prevent ID theft. Any ideas? Thank you in advance for any ideas. I wish those black helicopters would quit following me around.

 

[fzabkar]

If the RFID chip (you didn't give us any details about it) has an external coil antenna, then flow a blob of solder between its two pins.

For example, the following chip is used in some Lenovo ThinkPads. Shorting pins 1 and 2 would effectively disable remote access.

ftp://ftp.elektroda.net/pub/Aplikacje/Uklady Scalone/AT24RF08C.pdf

 

[LoveMachine]

If it is buried at the base of your brain, only wrapping your whole head in tinfoil will help.

 

[uberman]

The RFID chip is sealed in a business/id/card type thing and is covered by a plastic type substance similar to a credit card. The RFID chip used to be visible and was a noticeable bump in the card; however, on the new edition of this card it is almost undetectable. The card is starting to feel like the new model thwarts directly finding the chip by touch and certainly by looking at the card which in prior models has had the chip enclosed in a clear plastic window which is no longer visible. Has technology made the RFID chip almost invisible?

Maybe the chip has been miniaturized, note quote that I'm quoting from an unknown source on web*
*So I know its reliable.

"Quote:
More than 22 million visitors attended the Expo 2005 World's Fair in Aichi, Japan. Not one got in with a bogus ticket. The passes were practically impossible to forge because each harbored a tiny RFID (radio-frequency identification) chip - just 0.4 millimeter (mm) on a side and 0.06 mm thick - that transmitted a unique identification number via radio waves to a scanner at the gates.

Now Hitachi, the maker of that chip, is aiming even smaller. Last year it announced a working version of a chip only 0.05 mm on a side and 0.005 mm thick. Almost invisible, this prototype has one sixty-fourth the area yet incorporates the same functions as the one in the Expo tickets. Its minuteness, which will allow it to be embedded in ordinary sheets of paper, heralds an era in which almost anything can be discreetly tagged and read by a scanner that it need not touch."

Maybe the new technology has made the chip hard to find.

 

[sphere nothing]

interweb search:

faraday wallet


otherwise:

RFID spoofing


Accomplish the latter with Arduino Mega 2560 R3 and a shield or two optionally with raspberry pi

It is an extension of RFID, so anything you can do with RFID you can do with NFC.

Because it can read and write tags, you can always just use this for RFID-tag projects. We carry a few different tags that work great with this chip. It can also work with any other NFC/RFID Type 1 thru 4 tag (and of course all the other NXP MiFare type tags)

The Adafruit shield was designed by RF engineers using the best test equipment to create a layout and antenna with 10cm (4 inch) range, the maximum range possible using the 13.56MHz technology. You can easily attach the shield behind a plastic plate with standoffs and still read cards through a (non-metal) barrier.

 

[Mushkins]

I understand that using a block of nice hardwood and a few good swats with a hammer will destroy a RFID chip. Of course, it may leave marks. There are some reccomendations I've read such as placing the chip in a microwave oven, but I believe that might burn the card. I'm not doing anything illegal with a passport or something, I'm simplify trying to prevent ID theft. Any ideas? Thank you in advance for any ideas. I wish those black helicopters would quit following me around.

So stick it in a sock, *then* use a block of nice hardwood and a few good swats with a hammer

If the card is white plastic, you could always put it up to a really bright light and look for color/shape irregularities that might indicate where the RFID itself is in the card. Other than that, you either need gear to read/rewrite an RFID tag (expensive) or you can go the faraday cage route and jam it in a tinfoil wallet.

 

[corkyg]

Not quite sure what the game is. You have a RFID chip in a plastic card, as I understand it. Is the plastic card essential? If so, is not the RFID chip part of it's purpose? Just about all travel clothing/equipment stores/catalogs carry metal mesh wallets and card carriers. Passports now contain a RFID chip, and they are essential to their use. Likewise, there are woven metal passport carriers as well. I have two of them. Examples:

http://www.travelsmith.com/travel-accessories/security-bags-belts-wallets/rfid/

 

[uberman]

Not quite sure what the game is.

Its part of an ill-conceived payment system offering pay for each item one at a time or use a sticker that when placed on the card lets all the vendors know that you've already paid for any and all services. The cards however were originally designed for RFID scanning at a distance of a couple feet in order to bill the consumer for each individual service. The (day pass) sticker that means all services have been paid for is just that, a sticker that has nothing to do with electronics or a RFID chip. Because of this you are double billed at about a 75% rate meaning that besides a visual check of the paid sticker the RFID chip bills you at full ride price 3 out of 4 times. The management lacks any knowledge about technology and blames it on everything else.

I always buy the all inclusive package and have no reason for individual scanning and billing. I'm always double billed and recourse efforts are futile.

I've two woven stainless steel wallets. Two are worn out and they did slice expensive clothes. I have a soft RFID blocker for travel, but I haven't tried it yet. Its not useful for this issue here because the sticker indicating all services have been paid requires a visual check which exposes it to the scanners.

 

[Mushkins]

Its part of an ill-conceived payment system offering pay for each item one at a time or use a sticker that when placed on the card lets all the vendors know that you've already paid for any and all services. The cards however were originally designed for RFID scanning at a distance of a couple feet in order to bill the consumer for each individual service. The (day pass) sticker that means all services have been paid for is just that, a sticker that has nothing to do with electronics or a RFID chip. Because of this you are double billed at about a 75% rate meaning that besides a visual check of the paid sticker the RFID chip bills you at full ride price 3 out of 4 times. The management lacks any knowledge about technology and blames it on everything else.

I always buy the all inclusive package and have no reason for individual scanning and billing. I'm always double billed and recourse efforts are futile.

I've two woven stainless steel wallets. Two are worn out and they did slice expensive clothes. I have a soft RFID blocker for travel, but I haven't tried it yet. Its not useful for this issue here because the sticker indicating all services have been paid requires a visual check which exposes it to the scanners.

Sounds like a theme park situation to me. And out of all those people, none of them noticed they're being double billed, and none of them are complaining?

This sounds more like a complain very loudly to the company issue than it does an issue with a "beat the tech" solution. If anything they're gonna scan you, see the card doesnt work, and call security because they think its a fake. Im certain in that season pass documentation somewhere you agreed not to tamper with the card in any way on penalty of fines or forfeiture.

I'd personally gather up some proof of the double billing and the lack of company response, and take it to your local loudmouthed news organization. They *love* this kind of story, a theme park double charging customers the first week of summer and not caring? That's headline material right there.

 

[corkyg]

OK - since you have to preserve the card, but just want to excise the RFID chip, which apparently is no longer necessary, why not use a punch and remove the chip completely? You would have a card with a small hole in it.

You could also just drill a hole right through it.