Sunday, May 9, 2010

Experiments in Security: Magstripe Reading Using Rust Particles

Tetherdcow via BoingBoing has a great science experiment to try with magstripes on credit cards and other ID cards: using rust particles to read the magstripe. This looks like a great hands on and visible way to talk about how data is encoded when teaching students.

3 comments:

G.L.Dobbins said...

Ultra-cheap (no special hardware) magstripe reader: Rust particles and iCamera. Let software read the stripes by examining the picture.

David said...

Of course, the vial of very fine rust particles might be a bit messier than a cheap card reader!

Still, this is something I'm going to have to try next time I get to teach a security course with a good camera system available.

Unknown said...

I wonder if magnetic film would work? I used to have some of this as a kid: http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3082237

Not sure if the resolution is quite as high as the iron filings, though. Definitely less messy.