Travelling? Staying in a hotel? Be careful with that access card. The information stored on the magnetic strip may contain more than you know, including your credit card info:
> Wallace, IT director at AAA Reading-Berks in Wyomissing, Penn. has been bringing a card reader with him on business trips to see what’s on the magnetic strips of his hotel room access cards. To his dismay, a surprising number have contained his name and credit card information – and in unencrypted form.
Scary stuff. Next time you take a trip, be sure to keep those hotel access cards and destroy them once you get home. While you are at it, ask the hotel staff what information is stored on the cards and whether or not that information is encrypted. If everyone starts asking, perhaps pressure will be brought to bear on the hotels.
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2 comments so far… Jump into the discussion and tell us what you think.
Simply isn’t true. http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/hotelkey.asp
So it appears. The link to Snopes (provided above) does a great job debunking the story.
I should have checked that sooner.