MIT has begun to switch faculty and students from magnetic swipe identification cards to “proximity” cards readable from a distance, but has yet to address the security concerns with both the new system and the old system as a whole.
Like the replacement of the student services card with the original, multipurpose, magnetic-stripe MIT Card in the spring of 1994, the shift to a new technology raises concerns over security and privacy.The possibility of covertly reading and copying the cards, even as they rest in other students’ pockets, remains a concern. Nobody has demonstrated this, but nobody is prepared to say it is impossible or even particularly difficult for MIT’s electrical engineering majors.
“Since [proximity cards] can be read at a distance, someone could set up a bogus ID reader in Lobby 7 to scan ID’s as people pass,” said Chris T. Lesniewski-Laas G, who proposed a replacement for the MIT Card in 1999.