Hackers can EASILY steal your credit card information from across the room using just their phones

Your NFC capable Android smartphone could be the newest weapon hackers use to steal money from the credit cards in your pocket, researchers find. In a presentation at Hack In The Box Security Conference in Amsterdam, security researchers Ricardo J. Rodriguez and Jose Vila presented a demo of a real world attack, to which all NFC capable Android phones are vulnerable. This attack, delivered through poisoned apps, exploits the NFC feature allowing unethical hackers to steal money from victims’ credit cards anytime the cards are near the victims’ phone.

What is NFC?

Near Field Communication or NFC is a short-range contactless communication system that uses wireless data to allow various technologies in in close proximity to each other to communicate without the need for an Internet connection. NFC is the primary technology that allows for features like Android Beam. Android Beam allows Android users to swap pictures or contacts by holding two devices together. NFC technology has been increasingly used in cashless payment systems such as Google Wallet and now Android Pay.

NFC evolved from radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. An NFC chip, which can be found in most Android smartphones released in the last 2-3 years, acts as one one part of a wireless link. Once it’s activated by another NFC chip, small amounts of data between the two devices can be transferred when they are held a few centimeters from each other.

Source: familylifegoals.com