🔍
How safe is contactless payment? || How does RFID & NFC work? || EB#40 - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[1]
Nowadays, it is becoming more and more common to use a service
[5]
like for example Google Pay to... like the name implies
[9]
Pay for something in a store without using cash.
[13]
Even I use a contactless payment methods
[15]
with my Girocard.
[17]
Which I only have to hold in front of card reader
[19]
in a store for a couple of seconds to make a payments.
[24]
But, of course when it comes to money,
[26]
there will always be safety concerns.
[29]
So, in this video
[30]
Let's learn a bit about RFID and NFC
[33]
which are the technologies used for contactless payments.
[37]
And at the end
[38]
Let's determine
[39]
how safe this payment methods truly is?
[42]
And whether it makes sense to use the RFID
[45]
and NFC technology in our own simple Arduino projects.
[50]
LET'S
[50]
GET STARTED!
[64]
This video is sponsored by JLCPCB
[67]
who manufacture 10 PCBs
[69]
with dimensions of up to 10 × 10 centimeters
[72]
for just $2!
[74]
Their boards of a good quality
[76]
and feature 24-hour fast turnarounds.
[80]
And best of all,
[81]
their batch PCBs are cheaper
[83]
than from most other PCB companies.
[87]
When we search for “RFID Reader Arduino” on eBay
[91]
We get quite a big selection of boards to choose from.
[94]
But they boil down to three popular ICs.
[98]
Those are the RDM6300, PN532, and RC522.
[107]
To not miss out on anything.
[108]
I ordered all three of them
[110]
which luckily all came with either an RFID tag or card.
[115]
But how do we use them?
[118]
To find that out, I hooked up the RC522 board
[122]
to Arduino UNO development boards.
[124]
According to the wiring scheme,
[127]
which was presented in the dump in full sketch
[129]
of the RC522 Arduino library.
[133]
As soon as the connections were established
[136]
and the example code was uploaded.
[138]
I opened up the serial monitor.
[141]
Who after bringing the tag close to the boards
[144]
sped out a whole lot of information.
[146]
But why did that happen?
[148]
And what does the information mean?
[151]
Well, RFID stands for “Radio Frequency IDentification”
[156]
which means it has to do with wireless communication.
[160]
When we have a closer look at the PCB of the reader
[164]
we can see that the features an antenna
[167]
which we can draw simplified as a coil.
[170]
Now, the reader IC in combination
[173]
with some passive components
[174]
pushes a sinusoidal current through the antenna
[178]
which therefore creates a magnetic fields
[180]
around the coil.
[182]
The most-used frequencies are either 13.56 MHz (HF)
[187]
(HF - High Fequency)
The most-used frequencies are either 13.56 MHz (HF)
[188]
which the PN532 or the RC522 used.
[193]
And 125 KHz (LF)
[196]
(LF - Low Fequency)
And 125 KHz (LF)
[197]
which RDM6300 used.
[201]
The tag guts which we can clearly observe
[204]
in this transparent housing
[206]
consists of an antenna or coil as well
[209]
and a small chip.
[210]
Which, for example can be the Mifare Classic 1K (NXP).
[213]
(Or it can be NXP iCode SLI)
Which, for example can be the Mifare Classic 1K (NXP).
[215]
When the tag coil enters the magnetic field of the reader
[218]
it uses a voltage into it
[221]
and thus also occurrence which powers the IC.
[225]
This is called “Wireless Energy Transfer”.
[228]
And if you have never heard of it
[229]
I recommend you to watch my wireless charging video
[233]
as well as my DIY wireless energy transfer system video.
[238]
Now the tags IC is powered
[240]
and as we can see in its datasheet
[243]
holds 1 KB of data
[245]
that it wants to tell us, But how?
[248]
To find that out, I formed the loop
[250]
with my oscilloscope probes ground wire
[253]
and had a closer look at the magnetic fields
[255]
of the reader.
[257]
As you can see here.
[258]
It truly uses a frequency of 13.56 MHz
[263]
and we can also observe
[265]
that the amplitude of the sine wave changes quite a bit
[268]
while the reader and tag
[270]
communicates with one and other
[272]
The reason is,
[274]
that as soon as the tag IC is properly powered
[277]
It uses a build-in transistor to short its coil
[281]
according to the data it wants to send over.
[284]
This short circuits secondary currents
[287]
temps the carrier wave currents
[289]
and thus can be observed as slight changes
[292]
in the amplitudes.
[293]
And that is how the RFID tag talks with the reader.
[298]
I will not go into detail though
[300]
what the exact steps of the data exchange are.
[303]
Since there are plenty of tutorials out there
[306]
that cover this.
[307]
And we do not want to get too technical.
[311]
What is important is that as soon as a RFID tag gets too close to a RFID reader
[317]
it will spit out all of its information.
[320]
Which means it is pretty dumb.
[322]
But more about that later.
[324]
Because contactless payments does not use RFID,
[327]
But instead NFC
[329]
which stands for “Near Field Communication“.
[333]
Only problem is that NFC is a type of RFID.
[337]
Only difference is that we got more standardized rules
[341]
stated in for example, ISO 14443, ISO 18092, ISO 21481
[350]
(also, ISO 15693)
stated in for example, ISO 14443, ISO 18092, ISO 21481
[351]
Most Importantly though. We only use high Frequency
[354]
So, a distance of a couple of centimeters
[357]
between reader and tag is mandatory.
[360]
And you can also use a reader as a tag
[363]
to exchange more complex data.
[365]
(Android Beam, S Beam, etc.)
to exchange more complex data.
[366]
But let's take a quick break from NFC
[369]
and let's go back to the Arduino example.
[372]
We can use the reader
[373]
to also write new data to the RFID tag.
[376]
And of course use a part of the text data
[380]
as an identification password too.
[383]
For example, light up a LED
[386]
That means such an Arduino RFID reader
[389]
and tag is great for projects
[391]
where you need permission for something to happen.
[394]
Which I will keep in mind for future projects.
[397]
Okay, quick break over...
[400]
So let's ask the question:
[402]
How easy it actually is
[403]
to read the data from my Girocard?
[406]
No matter what
[407]
I tried or what kind of code I utilized the
[410]
The RC522 not recognized my card.
[414]
And by utilizing the PN532 board
[418]
which can handle more kinds of RFID tags.
[421]
I was also not capable of reading any data.
[425]
But that does not mean that there is no way to do that.
[428]
Because every modern smartphone nowadays
[431]
comes with NFC functionality.
[434]
By installing the “NFC Tools” app
[436]
(SubMaker: I also recomment NXP TagInfo)
By installing the “NFC Tools” app
[437]
we can for starters scan the previously use tag
[440]
to see some general information.
[443]
But also read out its entire memory.
[446]
Now, this time my Girocard got recognized.
[450]
And apparently it is an ISO 14443-4 compliant tag.
[457]
But while trying to read its memory
[459]
the app said that this type is not supported yet.
[464]
The reason is probably that while it is true
[467]
that RFID tags will send out that data pretty carelessly.
[471]
That does not mean that it is not encrypted.
[474]
By for example, a shared key.
[477]
Combine that with the effects letter close proximity is mandatory
[482]
and you mostly got a payment limits
[484]
Contactless payment is not as dangerous
[487]
as most people might think.
[489]
And if you want to be super safe
[491]
You can always get yourself
[493]
an anti skimming card holder for a couple of bucks.
[497]
It's metal material jams the radio frequencies
[501]
and thus let circuits not interact with an RFID reader.
[505]
And with that being said,
[507]
RFID is an important technology.
[510]
Which, for example allows me to own a card
[513]
that opens my youtube channel
[515]
if I bring it close to my smartphone.
[518]
I hope you enjoyed this video
[520]
and learned a thing or two.
[522]
If so, don't forget to like share and subscribe.
[525]
STAY
[526]
CREATIVE
[527]
AND I'LL
[527]
SEE YOU
[528]
NEXT TIME!
[529]
(Subtitle : PolaX3)
NEXT TIME!
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage