more on Hacked Speedpass, Hotel mag cards

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: John Adams <jadams01 () sprynet com>
Date: September 21, 2005 11:02:44 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Hacked Speedpass, Hotel mag cards
Reply-To: John Adams <jadams01 () sprynet com>


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>


> Snopes has already taken a skewer to this one:


> http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp

So? In this case, we've got an actual, live individual making fairly  
specific claims. Still could be a hoax, but as the snopes page points  
out, one chain did formerly do just what was claimed. Are you willing  
to bet that non-chains motels and hotels, and cheaper chains, aren't  
doing this? Snopes is good at documenting urban legends, but I don't  
regard that as superior to actually testing the cards and finding out  
the truth of the matter.

The follow-up from Robert Mitchell points something interesting out:

"What's interesting to me is that while everyone has an opinion as to  
whether its possible that hotels would  - either knowingly or  
unknowingly - store such information on a card key, only one person  
who posted here claims to have tried this at several hotels (without  
success). Given past discussions and all of the news stories going  
back to at least 2003, I am surprised that no one else among this  
tech savvy group has tried this and reported in."

Hmm...now where could I find a tech-savvy group to supply data? Any  
thoughts?

Thanks,

      John A
      see me fulminate at http://www.jzip.org/


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