Years ago, when I was given an opportunity to attend DEFCON, I jumped at the chance. If I were to describe DEFCON in one sentence, I would describe DEFCON as,” A conference where hackers can be at home.”
Prior to attending conferences, I always do my research about the conference itself and always prepared. In tech conferences, this usually meant looking at the schedule, planning which talks I would attend and when I would take a break. I’d also read skim the synopsis and do a bit of reading so that I can get the most out of the conference. For DEFCON, I brought food because I knew it was going to be a long day, and I reviewed my schedule carefully, and most importantly, I took cash (I never carry cash on me) because I didn’t want my credit card stolen by someone who installed a credit card scanner in any of the hotel devices.
During the conference, you’ll see attendees walking around with wild cyberpunk hairstyles, live social engineering phone calls to public companies, and presentations about how to steal RFID enabled credit card data.
One of the most eye-opening was how a research group built a RFID card reader that they put in their backpack and walked around scanning people’s credit cards! No, the girl or guy is not trying to grab your butt, they are just trying to skim your credit cards!
After my first DEFCON, I was so scared about what I might not know. I became more aware of security and things that I had to do at my home and work about protecting myself and my data. Since those days I also carry all my personal information around in an RFID blocking wallet.
Through the years, I have experimented with different RFID wallets. I understand you can also stuff a thick piece of aluminum foil inside your normal wallet, but because they are not “traditional”, they have been the talking point of many conversations.
My first RFID wallet was one that I bought off eBay for $5. These are the ones you can easily find when you search “RFID wallet” on eBay. I used these for a good 6 years or so. They were cheap, they worked, and they were colorful. The problem was that they were a bit too small to hold everything that I needed, and they were fragile. The wallets lasted roughly 8 months before the inevitable drop on the floor, breaking the wallet latch, causing all your sensitive information to be flung across the floor – definitely not good for security.
I then moved on to a Pokémon tin. At that time, my eldest daughter had gotten into Pokémon, and I decided to buy her some cards and took the Pokémon tin to use as my wallet – and it worked well. The tin was heavy aluminum, if I dropped it, it would not break. Because the tin was two pieces that came apart, I didn’t use this wallet for too long – maybe 1 year. I had too many accidents where while opening the wallet to pay for groceries, the top would drop across the floor. The Pokémon characters also attracted unwanted attention, such as all my daughter’s friends (no one can resist a WooLoo).
This brings us to the wallet I have been using for the past few years – a foldable camping stove. The above wallet looks new, even at three years old! At $8 (on sale), the stove is extremely affordable. The stove is heavy aluminum, it’s large enough to hold everything that I need, and it has this rugged factor which I love. It solves the problems of the first two wallets. It’s built like a rock, and it is one piece.
Now, I understand that with EMV enabled credit cards as well as with mobile payments using your cellphone the chances of getting your RFID credit card skimmed is probably extremely rare. Leading to my general thought that if someone really wanted to steal your money, there are easier ways to do it.
However, for me, I’ll continue to use my camp stove as my wallet. You cannot buy much with $8 nowadays and if I can have a wallet which lasts me 3 years (and counting), I am all sold.
