Free Rides: The Story of the Smartphone Subway Hackers

Two mobile security researchers discovered that it was possible to hack certain subway cards for free rides. What's worse, they think the trick isn't too hard to reproduce -- all they needed was a simple smartphone. However, it's unclear who is to blame for this security hole.

Everything started when Corey Benninger, a mobile security consultant who works for Intrepidus Group, was traveling in San Francisco in 2011. At the time, he and his colleague and friend Max Sobell had started playing around with the Google Nexus S and near field communication (NFC), a wireless technology that allows devices to communicate and exchange data over short distances or through physical response.

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