Should we take cheap-as-chips RFID on trust?
How to create a conspiracy theory: first, make a shocking statement featuring geek heroes, corporate censorship, cowardly mainstream media and evil lawyers. Then retract it. If the US TV programme MythBusters was trying an experiment last week, it worked.
The story began on July 20, when MythBusters' co-host Adam Savage told 3,000 hackers at The Last Hope, a New York hacker conference, that the programme would not be tackling RFID (radio-frequency identification) because its host broadcaster, Discovery Channel, wouldn't allow it. Savage said that during what was intended to be a research phonecall with Texas Instruments, which makes the chips used in some contactless payment cards, the show's hosts and the station were allegedly strong-armed by the credit card companies' lawyers. "Tory [Belleci, of MythBusters] still gets a little white when he describes that phone conversation," he told the assembled hackers.
