Mythbusters RFID episode banned

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/09/03/mythbusters-rfid-episode-banned/1

by bootload • 17 years ago

123 17 17 years ago

bootload• 17 years ago

I was watching this video (Adam Savage : FAILURE - Defcon 17 Talk) ~ http://www.vimeo.com/6006731 and wanted to find out why some random hacker asked about RFID.

idm2• 17 years ago

I assume it makes no difference if Texas Instruments is on the record saying, "...it was waiting “for Mythbusters to let us know when they were planning on showing the segment” when they heard “that the storyline had changed and they were pursuing a different angle which did not require our help."

I mean, that sounds like a line from the Godfather. Creepy.

All the same, this issue is a matter of the audience, not of producing a good debunking of RFID. Any debunking that wouldn't be viewed by millions of people, via Discovery, would presumably be "all good."

I think the disappointment, then, is that we really wanted to see an entertaining and thorough deconstruction of RFID... and while hackers can be thorough, they don't have the audience to justify producing something that is highly entertaining.

rudle• 17 years ago

Published: 3rd September 2008

Didn't you guys go to HOPE?

EDIT: link

http://www.thelasthope.org/talks.html

wheels• 17 years ago

Discussions from over a year ago:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=294831

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=294455

aplusbi• 17 years ago

Didn't you guys to Defcon? Where the RFID Mythbusting lecture was immediately before Adam Savage's Key-note?

jhancock• 17 years ago

I love that the article had a huge American Express ad served up with it!

sp332• 17 years ago

The Mifare-cracking presentation at 23C3 (Chaos Communication Congress, in Berlin) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=825150

idm2• 17 years ago

This video is great! The serious action starts at 21:25 when Henryk Plotz completely replicates an RFID card using his iPod. Definitely don't miss it!

trin_• 17 years ago

there was a talk at the 25c3 from the guys who reverse engineered the chip by hand... veeeeery interesting imho.

http://chaosradio.ccc.de/25c3_m4v_2896.html

biohacker42• 17 years ago

This should be it's own separate submission. Please submit this as it's own story sp332.

bprater• 17 years ago

So what is the basic hack you RFID hackers?

anigbrowl• 17 years ago

MitM + Brute force against weak-ass key. German, but not necessary for basic understanding: http://sar.informatik.hu-berlin.de/research/publications/SAR... or skip the theory: http://www.openpcd.org/Downloads.releases.0.html

dca• 17 years ago

Is this the first documented case of a MythBusters metamyth?

smhinsey• 17 years ago

I understand that things of this nature have happened before. In one of the segments from his well-known talk on failure, Adam Savage mentions that it happened with (I believe) Crest over teeth whitening strips.

billswift• 17 years ago

Here are some places Bruce Schneier talks about RFID, notice most of these are about RFID in passports, which is definitely public interest, and a big risk:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/02/cloning_rfid_p...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/08/hackers_clone_...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/rfid_passports...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/04/rfid_passport_...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/11/uk_rfid_passpo...

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/10/rfid_car_keys....

ErrantX• 17 years ago

There was a UK TV show (The Real Hustle) which demonstrated Passport skimming at in one episode. They had a scanner in the bag and just hung around and airport bumping into people till they got lucky.

Scary stuff.

sneakums• 17 years ago

Seems more like it was nobbled than banned.

Mythbusters RFID episode banned

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