On 29 May, 15:43, Boltar wrote:
I'm not sure how hard or not it would be to do. I'm presuming it uses
some form of encryption though given any reader can show you how much
you have left and where you've been then theres either some basic
system wide common key encryption going on or none at all which makes
me wonder how easy it would be to extract the details if you had a
suitable reader yourself or even up the amount of cash on a pre-pay.
Apparently the MIFARE system can work at much greater ranges than the
one TfL uses so I'm also wondering if it would be possible to grab
details from travellers as they walk past an office building and so
forth. Anyone heard any rumours of anything like this happening?

B2003

Hi B2003, I replied but I pressed submit accidentally so ignore any
other response I have made.

I've read some interesting things about RFID (Radio Frequency
IDentification) that would suggest RFID is not 100% secure and "could"
be hacked (http://www.doxpara.com/read.php/security/rfid.html), I'd
expect that TfL have used any security available because it protects
their all important revenue.

That said, this sort of theft would go un-noticed unless the thief
tried to use the card in the same station and at the time period as
the victim, and they would hardly get noticed either.

To be honest, my opinion is ANY wireless technology is a security hole.