On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:26:57 -0800, ticketyboo wrote:

On Jan 29, 8:23Â*pm, Matthew Geier
wrote:

Â*The people who make the 'access control' system at my work have said
they want to replace the mag-strip readers with MiFare Classic readers
and replace all our cards.
The access control suppliers really should move on beyond Mifare Classic
for new smart card installations.

I assume they are concerned more with the price of the cards than actual
real security. The current mag cards can be cloned, so can the MiFare
classic, so from that point it's bought nothing. I suspect their main
concern is the maintenance - the mag readers need regular cleaning of the
read heads and wear out and thus need replacing after a time. The cards
wear out from constant swiping. RFID gets rid of a lot of maintenance.
The system is designed around simply reading the serial number of the
card and consulting a database, so they won't be using any of the other
'smart' features either with out a significant redesign of the system.
It's really just a cost cutting exercise.