I don’t travel that much, but when I do and stay at hotels, I never give back the electronic room key. I bring it back with me and then shred the damn thing. Why? Because the unprotected information on that magnetic strip is mind boggling, not only does that contain what room you’ve been assigned, but the check-in and check-out dates, your id or passport number, nationality, and credit card number and its expiry date. With all of this information and with the ready availability of simple and cheap card readers, it won’t take a genius to utilise this information and defraud you.
And when you think that most check-out counters just have a simple box or basket for people to throw their cards in there once they’re done with the room. You could easily put your hand in that box/basket and fish out as many cards as you want without anyone worrying about your action. If confronted just say that you collect these cards for mementos, use them for decorations, or tea mats etc.
It appears that this is not the only problem with hotel security, Wired News has an interesting article where an enterprising hacker can gain much more information than those put on an electronic card by hacking into the unprotected billing system through the hotel room TV’s infra-red remote control receiver port!
Very scary.
Time to get one of those very limited credit cards, or go back to using cash and traveller’s cheques. I bet if you do, YOU will be looked at as a criminal or a completely deranged person.
Comments
Hotel security considerations
WoW! Very interesting!
Hotel security considerations
The latter hacking example did actually happen to me! I was staying at a well known hotel in Manhattan, NY. I decided one night to check the status of my room bill thru the TV menu when suddenly an admin menu appeared without a password. At first I thought it was a demo menu but when I verified both mine and my colleague’s rooms bills I realised it was THE admin menu!
No, I did not record guests information. Just felt amazed when I discovered that my colleague was watching two adult movies every single night!
Mahmood’s ex-neighbour 😉
Hotel security considerations
Just try telling the hotel that you will not hand over the keys!!!
They tried convincing me that there’s nothing held on it.. bla bla bla… but when i said that this is the sorta stuff i study… the conversation turned into.. ‘so tell me.. how does it work??’
AHHHH!!!! now i do agree.. limited credit cards, traveller’s cheques and cash seem like a better idea…. but the question i have is what do u do when the hotel key is bulky?
If any of you have been to Dubai recently, Qasr Al-Salam has this wooden disc i think that acts as a key… now many want to take it back because it’s nice for a change!! but the hotel just won’t let u…
the fact that it’s bulky means that it’s meant to act as a behavioral inscription, deterring people from ‘accidentally’ taking it (idea being the heavier it is, the less likely u are to take it.. but if it’s attractive… doesn’t that defeat the purpose?)
i was wondering what data is held on it?? is it a simply activation key with a check-in and check-out date? or is it exactly the type of info held on by magnetic/smart card entry keys.. only in a different shell?
Re: Hotel security considerations
Never had a problem with keeping these simple plastic cards. I agree however that if they are made of heavy material, or if these cards are made ornately, it will be difficult to keep them, but that would demonstrate that the hotel cares about insignificant things rather than keeping their guests’ information as the highest priority.
The one thing they CAN do if they want those cards back is install a powerful magnet to clear the magnetic information on these cards, or actually SHOW the guest at checkout them clearing the information off the card. That process is not difficult really, just swipe it again on a dummy record and display the result so the guest is assured.
I bet that most people won’t even mind paying a little charge to get that done!
Hotel security considerations
Thanks for the tip.
Michael in Framingham
Hotel security considerations
The info mentioned is only encoded on the key cards in hotels where the key can be used to buy things in the restaurant or bar. If it is only used to ôpen the door it will have the room number, check in & check out date encoded. The lock doesn’t need any more information.