Gas Pump Phreaking

Phone Phreaking was the way of stealing phone services by some pretty simple methods that fooled some really lame technology. RSA with John Hopkins University have shown that they can do the same thing to those little wands that are used for quick access to the gas pumps.

The team has withheld from its article critical code-breaking details that could abet would-be hackers. The makers of products that rely on the security technology say that without those key specifics, criminals are unlikely to achieve what the Johns Hopkins-RSA team has.

"If you look at the kind of equipment and time needed by the researchers to break this, it's not what would normally be considered an attractive theft opportunity," claims J. Donald Turk of ExxonMobil in Fairfax, Va.

In any case, Juels says, the new study uncovers a preventable weakness in wireless security technologies, which are becoming more prevalent. "It's very important to ensure that we get security right in wireless devices from the very start," he says.

Turk should know better than to think that someone won't be able to figure this out on their own and not implement it. The same was thought with stealing wireless phone numbers and access codes. That was pretty easy and cost a lot of people a lot of money. If money is involved, you can bet someone will try it.

Oh, and like the original Phreakers, there is certain to be some major technoGeek out there that will do it just for the challenge. Never tell a Geek that it is unlikely that they could figure this out on their own. If the RSA guys did it, you know there are people out there that can do the same thing.

I'd say they better fix it quick, or they'll be paying for it in the long run.