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CC Companies Scotch Mythbusters Show On RFID Security

Posted by kdawson on Sat Aug 30, 2008 06:40 PM
from the next-comes-guns-and-money dept.
Hardware Hacking
mathfeel passes along a video in which Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage recounts how credit card companies lawyered up to make sure the Discovery channel never, ever airs a segment on the flaws in RFID security. "Texas Instruments comes on [a scheduled conference call] along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... They [Mythbusters producers] were way, way outgunned and they [lawyers] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it's on Discovery's radar and they won't let us go near it."
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Firehose:Mythbuster got out-laywered by CC companies by mathfeel (937008)
[+] Your Rights Online: Adam Savage Revises Claim of Lawyer-Bullying On RFID Show 301 comments
Nick writes "A few weeks ago a video of a talk given by Adam Savage of the television show MythBusters spread across the internet (including a mention on Slashdot.) On the video, Savage stated that the show was unable to produce an episode about previously known RFID vulnerabilities due to a conference call to Texas Instruments that unexpectedly included several credit card companies' legal counsel. TI (via a spokesperson talking with cnet.com) stated that only one lawyer was on the call and that the majority of the people on the call were product managers from the Smart Card Alliance (SCA) invited by TI to speak. Then Savage (via a Discovery Communications statement) reaffirmed that he was not on the call himself and that the decision was not made by Discovery or their advertising sales department but rather MythBuster's production company, Beyond Productions."
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CC Companies Scotch Mythbusters Show On RFID Security 25 Comments More /

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  • Delaying the inevitable (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Brad1138 (590148) * <brad1138@yahoo.com> on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:40PM (#24813941)
    No disrespect to the MythBusters, but if they could figure it out, plenty of others will also.
  • After hearing this news, I went to the Mythbusters site and entered in a bunch of old wives tales & myths passed onto me from my father and forefathers concerning lawyers. They are:
    • Lawyers possess a membrane of blood just below the skin so they appear to be human and bleed from things like paper cuts and scratches but if shot in the head or other vital organ, they will not bleed.
    • As long as they are given fresh videos of accidental injuries where a party is liable, lawyers can go weeks without food or water and still survive.
    • When dropped from 6 story (or higher) buildings, lawyers bounce.
    • Even when bound with twine and anchored, lawyers float.
    • If you cut a lawyer's head off, it will manage to sue you for days before it dies.
    • Lawyers emit an evil into the ether so powerful that when they are placed in a cage with a ravenous lion, the lion will cower and run.
    • Lawyers can smell profit and always pick the correct door in the Monty Hall situation when IEDs lay on the other side of two and $1,000 lays on the other side of one.
    • Lawyers can't feel pain.
    • Any lawyer can outrun a male grizzly bear in the middle of mating season.
    • Over the years, lawyers have built up a tolerance to lethal doses of iocane powder.

    I can't wait until they test my myths! Also, lawyers are the reason we no longer have habeas corpus, so the show should be filmed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

  • In other words: (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:42PM (#24813955)
    Myth Confirmed.

  • Next on Mythbusters... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bieeanda (961632) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:43PM (#24813957)
    Busting Security Through Obscurity!

  • This isn't about the hackers... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hpa (7948) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:46PM (#24813983) Homepage

    This isn't at all about the hackers ... this is about making the general public aware just how bad this is.

  • I can just see the courtroom in 2010 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Hawthorne01 (575586) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:47PM (#24813991)

    "So, if I Understand this correctly, you knew of these security holes back in 2008, and rather than fix them, you prevented the Mythbusters from talking about them."

    "Well, yes, Your Honor."

    "Give me another reason why I should listen to one word of your defense against this class action suit?"

    This will come back and bite them in the @$$. Hard.

  • Pass the buck (Score:5, Insightful)

    by magus_melchior (262681) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:49PM (#24813999) Journal

    So, rather than face lawsuits over contractual obligations to build and maintain a secure system (hah), they litigate the party who exposes them for attempting fraud.

    Should it be surprising that in a culture that prizes profits and pride over progress, that litigation threats are used to squelch otherwise good feedback and information?

  • I smell a Streisand Effect coming... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Stanislav_J (947290) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:50PM (#24814001)

    Of course, now that the story is propagating all over the Net, pretty soon everyone will know about the alleged security flaws (if not the details), and the CC companies and their legal eagles will look quite villainous. When will they ever learn?

  • They busted yet another myth..... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:50PM (#24814005)

    freedom of speech.

  • Yeah, well... (Score:5, Informative)

    by VValdo (10446) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:50PM (#24814009)

    They weren't able to stop this one [pbs.org], which, if you haven't seen yet, is pretty amazing.

    • Re:Yeah, well... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MBCook (132727) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:59PM (#24814049) Homepage

      Because PBS isn't advertiser funded, it gets its support from private individuals and (to a rather minor extent) the government. While corporations can (and do) donate, it isn't their lifeblood.

      I agree with you though. I've seen that episode and it's a fantastic rebuke of the credit card industry.

    • Re:Yeah, well... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cortesoft (1150075) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:59PM (#24814051)
      I think you have just shown a perfect example of why we need television that isn't funded by advertisers. PBS can air the show because they aren't driven by profit and aren't beholden to those corporations (although even that is starting to change with corporate sponsorship of PBS). While you can argue that public television is beholden to the government, at least it is beholden to a (slightly) different power.

      • Not only that but (Score:5, Insightful)

        by beakerMeep (716990) on Saturday August 30 2008, @07:10PM (#24814131)
        I truly see Frontline as one of the last and only truly investigative journalism programs on TV. It's the only show where I have found myself thinking "wow what they are reporting is interesting but it raises question A" and then as if by magic, the show continues: "we decided to further investigate and here's what we found about question A and this lead us to questions B, C and D"

  • corporate games (Score:5, Interesting)

    by sr8outtalotech (1167835) on Saturday August 30 2008, @07:03PM (#24814079)
    It's a all about risk management for the companies involved. On one hand you have the Discovery Channel which depends on advertising revenues. On the other hand you have several large corporations that are using a flawed system. The question for the credit card companies is whether or not it's cheaper to use the system in place and pressure others not to disclose flaws or come up with something that works better. Sort of reminds me of Mitsubishi and the wheels flying off their heavy vehicles a few years ago. It was cheaper to payout settlements than recall and fix the vehicles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Motors#Vehicle_defect_cover-up [wikipedia.org]

    I know the management of these companies have obligations to the shareholders but isn't about time they started to exhibit an obligation to not make fraud so easy with the current system?

    • News from the future! (Score:5, Funny)

      by symbolset (646467) on Saturday August 30 2008, @06:50PM (#24814007) Journal

      Wildly popular Mythbusters television star Adam Savage resigned suddenly from his position as cohost of Discovery TV's Mythbusters. Said Mr. Savage: "I just want to take a little personal time with my family. I'll be taking some time out for a year or four in Belize."

      Mr. Savage has not been seen since, and our repeated calls to his agent go unanswered.

      The Discovery Channel has announced through media representative Linsay Patter "We'll miss him and wish him the best. His loss means we won't be able to continue with the show." Discovery will be filling the space with Annie Parkinson's "Crafts for Children".

    • Re:Sometimes it neccesary (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 30 2008, @07:12PM (#24814159)

      Bad analogy time:

      It's like a ship with holes in it. If the ship is already at sea, you shut up and man the pumps. But if the ship is in the dock, you yell "Look, hole!" and hopefully you wont have to pump quite as much later on.

    • Re:Sometimes it neccesary (Score:5, Insightful)

      by RelaxedTension (914174) on Saturday August 30 2008, @07:19PM (#24814201)
      "...and I have decided to keep those revelations to myself so that it is not exploited by every script kiddie and wannabe hackers to try."

      And you are the only person that will figure that method out, I guess. Hopefully, you are the smartest person alive, and the problem so difficult no one else can possibly figure it out too, and abuse it.

      The way we move forward as a race is that we share information, both about what works and helps, and more importantly about what doesn't work or causes harm. If the people affected the most by the flaw that has been discovered do nothing about it, then disclosure is the way. That way everyone else is informed and warned, as they should be.

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