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 recieve information and offers from thrid party vendors.
You May Also Like
BEAMIT Expands Metal 3D Printing Fleet with GE Additive’s M Line
Already a customer of GE Additive, BEAMIT Group (BEAMIT), partly owned by SANDVIK, has taken on another metal 3D printer from the manufacturing giant. The latest is a Concept Laser M...
5 Ways Biden’s AM Forward Strategy Will Grow 3D Printing in the US
On May 6, 2022, President Joe Biden paid a visit to United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio, where he announced the launch of a new federal 3D printing program dubbed...
6K Raises $102M in Series D Round Led by Koch Strategic Platforms
6K has just announced that it has closed the first tranche of its Series D round of financing, for $102 million. In all, the company expects to raise a total...
How Intelligent Automation and Networking of 3D Printing and Post-processing Increase Productivity
The market for Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes continues to grow and will even fivefold by 2030, according to SmarTech Analysis. More and more companies are taking a step towards the...
Print Services
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.