Brian Krebs, who previously wrote tech news at the Washington Post, is now blogging about tech security issues at “Krebs on Security.” In a recent post, Krebs pointed out a new way that criminals are attempting to “skim” ATM data. “Skimmers” are devices that read and capture data off magnetic strips on credit cards, driver’s licenses, ATM cards. It isn’t hard to find the technology for credit- or debit-card skimming. Card readers are readily available from stores for a few hundred dollars. In fact, bars and clubs have used off-the-shelf card readers to gather data from customers’ driver’s licenses or ID cards. In 2008, USA Today listed cases in California, Pennsylvania and other states where people were suspected of targeting gas pumps to surreptitiously gather data. Go to Krebs’s post to see photos of a new kind of card skimmer, one that’s tricky to spot, and his analysis of it. You’ll need to see the photos to understand the problem.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 and is filed under Anonymity, Identification, Security, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Possibly related posts:

• Associated Pres: N.Y. man admits ‘skimming’ ATMs for nearly $300K
• St. Cloud Times (Minnesota): New laws on ID theft, business start today
• Washington Post: Thousands of dollars taken from bank accounts linked to ATM card skimmer