MIT researchers and semiconductor company Texas Instruments say their new radio-frequency (RFID) chips are hack-proof and could keep your credit cards safer.
RFID chips, which can be found in credit cards and security badges, can become vulnerable through what MIT calls "side-channel attacks," which use fluctuations in a power source to attack the chip.
This could potentially, though with some difficulty, occur when you use a contactless payment option when paying with your credit card.
MIT's researchers have come up with two solutions to this power-based side-channel attack, including an on-board power supply that has a connection with the chip circuitry that's "virtually impossible to cut" and by using a set of "'non-volatile memory cells that can store whatever data the chip is working on when it begins to lose power."
This, MIT says, will ensure that those power-glitch attacks won't happen, making the new chips hack-proof.
Of course, now that MIT has called its RFID chip technology hack-proof, there are likely to be those who try and hack the new tech.
The chips are still in development, but with the growing prevalence of chip readers, a safety measure like this could better protect customer data. Let's hope MIT's chips - or something similar - are put into circulation soon.
