Prox Card Bump Cloning UPDATE 4 Popular Press

The latest bump clone news is Wired Magazine, a mainstream glossy periodical has an article on RFID and bump cloning. The article Robbed Blind appears in the May 2006 Issue on page 167. The lead column describes a bump cloning of a prox card used for building access. The simulated target, Mr. Van Bokkelen, has his access card bump cloned. Then the Wired reporter, Annalee Newitz and the hacker, Mr. Joanathan Westhues, use the cloned card to enter the target's offices Sandstorm. Mr. Van Bokkelen is quoted, "I always thought this might be a lousy security system".

If you used KMS Systems you would have read about it here last year....

The article takes pains to point out how useful an ordinary thief would find bump cloning. It briefly mentions the value of the source code on the computers that could be stolen. It did not point out the real danger to a software company like Sandstorm. The potential for their source code to be copied without discovery. All the Microsoft documentation on computers states that someone with physical access to the computers can bypass all the security measures Microsoft could muster.

So by cloning the executive's card, entering the office and making copies of the hard disks a competitor could gain all they would need to neutralize years of effort by the target. The author missed the point, intellectual property is the real asset of a company like Sandstorm. And this property could end up in the hands of a competitor with the only trace being Mr. Van Vokkelen's card being used late one night....