It is commonly thought that gift cards must be activated to have any monetary value. Often displayed on counter-tops and lining grocery store aisles, seemingly worthless unactivated gift cards are free for anyone to grab a handful. However, weaker security features than the average credit card makes these gift cards nearly as valuable as cash. Mass produced, their numbers follow a predictable pattern and have limited built-in security, such as chip and pin, to prevent fraud. This presentation will demonstrate little-known weaknesses in multiple gift card systems, show how these weaknesses can be exploited, and suggest better countermeasures to theft than the ones currently in place.

Recorded at NolaCon 2018