Security issues?
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Hi,
the idea of unlocking your door or paying stuff with the ring sounds great. But since I'm unfamiliar with the NFC technique I was wondering if this is safe. My question is what exactly prevents somebody to copy (the content of) my ring and unlock my door with that copy?
Thanks in advance,
cheers,
bb -
Hi, the rings consist of a UID followed by whatever you store on them. If someone clones your card then the copy would be theirUID,yourUID, your storage and thus not the same.
I know of some mifare type cards that have programmable UID sections but it can be problematic. Anyone who goes to those lengths was probably going to get your data without reading your ring.
NFC is named that way as an acronym for Near Field Communications, the near part meaning the device has to be in close proximity to the reader unit.
The rings are even more secure in that regard because they have to be less than 5mm from poorly matched reader units with large antennas.
Add to that the possibility of radio crosstalk because there are two seperate NFC inlays in close proximity to one another, which would make any kind of distance read nothing more than garbage.
As long as you're careful and don't let someone walk up to you and scan each ring inlay one at a time then you're pretty safe, I don't even consider it a concern. -
Thanks for your reply. This leeds to another question.[quote:3qpt478e]The rings are even more secure in that regard because they have to be less than 5mm from poorly matched reader units with large antennas.[/quote:3qpt478e]
Does this mean that I have to hold the ring near a very specific area on my phone? I guess this means that the ring has to be properly rotated. I like the black/black version of the rings, but will it be possible to see if the ring has the right orientation? -
Hi mate,
This is what we mean when we're referring to a 'sweet spot' on a phone or other device, we talk about this because being more difficult to read they need to be in an extremely specific area on some devices. We have sweet spot reports and other conversations on the forums here, discussions about different phones and how they react with the NFC rings, both alpha and normal - because the size change also alters the way they work due to it being a size change in the antenna in the ring.
By orientation if you mean whether you have an inlay on the top and one on the bottom of your finger, then sure. It's relatively easy to pick that they're sitting in the right place, though it is possible to have the ring rotate. I just glance at mine every now and then and spin it a bit so the inlays are top and bottom again.
With the black/black/black stealth bomber you're still able to see the inlays it will perhaps just be an issue seeing which one is which. I haven't seen a stealth bomber in the flesh yet though. I would recommend registering more than one inlay as an unlock for a phone though, just in case the worst happens and you get stuck for an unlock. -
Does this mean that I have to hold the ring near a very specific area on my phone? [/quote:2sx3edg8]
Yes the ring needs to be properly rotated to be read. This is more difficult on the stealth bomber rings as they're black with black inlays. But if you look closely you see the inlays.Lokki posted faster ;)
