Travel Tracks - A Block Off The Old Chip

(Page 10)

I've heard it said that luck is where preparation and opportunity intersect.
I suppose it follows that bad luck occurs when the mind's GPS craps out.
Touch wood, I've never held much stock in the theory of luck either way.
That said, preparation and opportunity presented themselves the other night and I was damned lucky to catch the program.
CBC had a fascinating presentation a few nights back, which of course some would argue was newsworthy of its own right.
It seems the world has gone nutty over Smart Technology.
I've often wondered if the term wasn't a bit of an oxymoron given that if it wasn't smart - how would it fall under the banner of technology?
Nonetheless.
Like most of us, I tend to walk around with a wallet laden with credit cards. enhanced photo identification, a bar coded library card and the odd magnetic backed hotel room key that I meant to turn in 3 trips ago.
Because I rarely use my card over the internet (my wife delights in telling people it's because general computer skills are pretty much over my head) I've never been all that concerned about personal data theft.
I haven't got the patience to stand in front of an ATM that at best befuddles me as to why it can never seemingly work twice in a row, so that avenue for identity theft is a short one.
I figured I was pretty low risk for the migration of personal data over to the unsavory.
Not so according to Canadian But Credible.
In their quest for faster, smarter and I suspect cheaper methods of exchanging data, most credit cards, a lot of hotel room keys and some drivers licenses are imbedded with RFID or Radio Frequency Identification.
I won't bother to go into great detail about this techno wizardry - if you're a geek, you know what it is.
For the rest of us mere mortals, suffice it to say that the data stored on these cards can be read by a remote device, presumably from the International  Space Station, where Sergei who's going out of his tree with boredom for 6 months at a time, can determine how many bottles of scotch you purchased over the past 8 months on a given credit card.
And because at the end of his shift, Sergei's looking to spend a week or 2 in Disneyland, he's probably sharing this information with NASA and perhaps the Lexington Chamber of Commerce.
This in turn could have a serious impact on your ability to cross the US border en route to Kentucky next summer as Scotch is a vile threat to Bourbon producers in that fine state and Homeland Security, who also can read the data, would find you to be a persona non grata and injurious to the US economy.
Going with a more earthly risk assessment, the CBC report focused on this very same information being lifted from cards through the employment of some fairly inexpensive devices known as remote scanners.
Seems that from distances of up to 50 ft - or 15 meters in Canada - Scanners for Scammers can lift the information right through layers of clothing and wallets, and 10 minutes later be paying for a luxury hotel room in Dubai.
Up until that epiphany moment, not only was I unaware that the bad guys were that savvy, but equally unaware that a $3.00 item could derail their plans to get into my back pocket easier than the Government.   
It's called a defender sleeve.
Fits neatly over the credit card and blocks out any attempt to read the info from the card.
Think of it as similar to the deflector shields used by Star Trek's Enterprise without having to listen to William Shatner ramble on.
I'd tell you we stock them in our office but that would seem like crass advertising, now wouldn't it?
So I won't tell you.
But of course, we do.
Do I use them?
Not yet - lost my wallet the other day and despite numerous calls to Sergei to locate the damned thing, it appears his tracking abilities have been blocked by the shields.
Bit of bad luck wouldn't you say?

Adios until next time
Dave Heron

Dave Heron is the owner and operator of:
Pace Setter Travel & Tours (1995) Inc;
P.O. Box 612, 49 Elizabeth Street, Okotoks.
Tel: 403.938.5454
Toll Free: 1.800.206.7223.
Fax: 403.938.5568
Email:
pacesetter@nucleus.com