Developers who work on mobile payment platforms
should start hitting the panic button: Esteemed hacker Charlie Miller is about to mess them up. Dark Reading reports that Miller’s presentation at Black Hat USA this year “will show just how dangerous it can be to pay cabfare with your mobile device, as he demonstrates vulnerabilities he discovered in emerging near-field communications (NFC) technology.” While Miller doesn’t go into any details into what vulnerabilities he’s found in his Dark Reading interview, he does provide a glimpse into what he’s been trying to do by telling the publication that he’s attempting to see if his smartphone’s NFC radio can be used to “intercept your money or your credit card” or even “take over your phone because you have this new chip [and] functionality.”
Given that less-credentialed hackers have already found supernova-sized black holes in Google Wallet and other mobile payment platforms, it will be interesting (and scary) to see what Miller has cooked up with NFC.
