Going old school for a moment to copy an expression used by Maxwell Smart, Agent 86 for Control, who ended most shows by lamenting about the bad guys: “If only they had used their powers for good instead of evil”. And so it goes in the case of the internet of things.

Skimmers have been a source of breached credit and debit cards since before 2010. Primitive skimmers were bulky and unreliable. Later skimmers that were inserted behind the cover of the gas pump or the ATM were not easily detected. Having security tape with a warning “Please report any broken seals to the cashier“ puts the burden on the customer to be wary of, and alert for skimmers, and put a damper on the rapid growth of skimmers at the pump – that is, until the internet of things came into popularity.

Skimmers “eavesdrop” on data

The internet of things is loosely defined as the interconnection of connected devices. As Tom Davis, VP of Technology at CSCU explained, any device that has power, can be given sensors, intelligence, and communications capability to become a connected device. In the case of skimmers, the sensors are eavesdropping on the data on the mag stripe as its being swiped, the intelligence is storing the data and uploading it on command, and the real breakthrough is the communications capability, namely adding Bluetooth to skimmers. Prior to adding Bluetooth, the fraudsters would need to sneak the skimmer in, and later come back to retrieve the data. That doubled their chance of getting caught. And once they retrieved the skimmer, they usually would grab it and take off quickly, ending the skimming attach at the location.

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