Online clothing company Betabrand, working in conjunction with anti-virus firm Norton, has developed a new line of jeans that contains within it material that blocks wireless signals.
Specifically, the silver-based material stops thieves from digitally hacking radio frequency identification that is tagged to passports or contactless payment cards. The jeans will go on sale in February and retail for $151; the two companies also created a blazer to serve the same purpose. It will go on sale at the same time, and retail for $198.
Per security experts, more than 10 million identities are digitally pickpocketed every year, and by 2015, more than 70% of all credit cards will be vulnerable to these sorts of attacks.
The Betabrand / Norton outfit line is not the first attempt to address this issue. Just recently, digital forensic firm Disklabs used similar technology to make a wallet that blocks RFID signals.
“There is technology readily available for anyone to snatch other people's credit and debit card data within seconds,” said Disklabs boss Simon Steggles.
“These apps simply copy the card with all the information on it.”
The firm has also designed “faraday” bags that block these signals.
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