Cybersecurity expert Patrick Traynor, a professor of computer information science and engineering at the University of Florida, had his credit card information stolen half a dozen times in five years. Fed up, he and some University of Florida students began working with local law enforcement professionals to create a device that would slide into a card reader slot and detect whether or not it had been compromised by credit card skimmers.
Most credit card skimmers work by installing an extra “read head” inside or outside a credit card reader. This extra read head allows criminals to copy customers’ credit card information as the card is swiped. The device created by Traynor, called the “Skim Reaper,” detects if there is more than one read head installed. About the size of a credit card itself, the device slides into the slot and is attached by a cable to a cellphone-sized 3D printed box that says “possible skimmer!” if it detects that the reader has been compromised.
Traynor and his team have been using 3D printers to create the devices, and gave five of them to the NYPD in February to test out. Credit card skimming has been becoming a major problem especially in New York.“We’ve had to manufacture these cards,” Traynor explained. “We’ve been using 3D printers that we have here in the lab to built our boxes. The students have been soldering, they’ve been writing software.”
“In New York City, we saw a surge in ATM skimming in the past few years, as evidenced by the increase in devices recovered by our agency, the NYPD,” said Lt. Gregory Besson of the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force. “In 2015, we recovered 48 devices, and two years later that number had doubled to almost a hundred devices in 2017. Correspondingly, our arrests more than doubled for the same period, from 48 skimming-related arrests in 2015 to 134 skimming arrests in 2017. The big takeaway is that we’re always seeking new innovative ways to tackle this growing crime type, and we welcome trying new tools that would aid us towards that goal.”
According to Steven Weisman, a cybersecurity expert and professor at Bentley University, the Skim Reaper could be a “revolutionary, watershed moment” in stopping credit card skimmers.
“If indeed this new technology could be done on a cost effective basis, it could put the skimmers out of business,” he said. “It would save people tremendous amounts of money and aggravation.”
Right now, it takes about $50 to make each Skim Reaper, but Traynor and his team are working hard to reduce the cost, and also to make the device smaller so that it can be carried in a wallet. The NYPD says that more testing needs to be done but that they are impressed with the early results using the device.
“I’ve been doing skimming for approximately five years now and I have never used anything like this or have known of anything like this,” said NYPD Det. James Lilla of the Financial Crimes Taskforce. “It’s definitely an assist we can use to combat ATM skimming.”
Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below.
[Sources: University of Florida, AP News]
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
You May Also Like
Spanish Clothing Company Mango Backs Ziknes 3D Printed Furniture Made with Recycled Materials
With its trendy and affordable designs that resonate globally—and €2.3 in annual revenues—Mango is boldly stepping into the realm of innovation and technology. Through its Mango StartUp Studio accelerator, the...
3D Printing News Briefs, November 25, 2023: Housing, Seed Funding, & More
We’re starting with additive construction news in this Thanksgiving weekend edition of 3D Printing News Briefs, and then moving on to seed funding and a Memorandum of Understanding. Finally, we’ll...
Dyndrite Advances 3D Printing Materials at Formnext 2023
Dyndrite has teamed up with Constellium, Elementum 3D, and Sandvik to launch the industry-led Materials Consortium for additive manufacturing (AM). This collaborative initiative is meant to democratize the landscape of...
1000Kelvin’s AI-Powered Autocorrect for 3D Printing Now Commercially Available
1000Kelvin, the US-Germany software as a service (SaaS) startup specializing in AI-powered solutions for additive manufacturing (AM), has announced the commercial launch of its signature AMAIZE platform at Formnext 2023...