2 THE DAILY VOICE, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2012 EDITOR MORNA CASSIDY ews & features Identity thieves go electronic A new era of pickpockets are using smartphone technology to steal your personal information without even touching your wallet By CLAYTON PATERSON f the threat of credit card theft wasn’t frightening enough already, new technology allows thieves to steal your information without ever physically touching your wallet. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips are becoming more com- mon on cards carried in wallets, and “Instead of worrying about someone walking by you in a crowd pickpocket- ing you, [people] have to really worry about [their] own phone,” said Walt Augustinowicz, founder and CEO of Identity Stronghold. Augustinowicz said that it is possi- ble for a thief to embed code in a seem- ingly harmless application that, when downloaded to a smartphone, can steal Companies like Identity Stronghold sell accessories such as card and pass- port sleeves, wallets and cell phone technology exists that allows thieves to easily and quickly steal the information they need. “[RFID chips] claim to make financial transactions easier and faster,” said RCMP Cpl. Richard De Jong in a press release. “Tt is so much easier that identity thieves are reading your credit cards before you even take them out of your wallet.” Devices capable of wire- lessly skimming this informa- tion are inexpensive and eas- ‘RFID Credit Card Reader" DENTITY &) STRONGHOLD anee KkKK KKKK I333 07/11 ICARDHOLDER/VALUED Clear Protect Your Card ily available on sites such as the technology to steal infor- mation. Near field communication (NFC) is technology that allows devices such as smartphones to establish radio com- munication with other devices, but be- cause the technology is based on exist- ing RFID standards, it can be turned against the consumer to steal credit card information. credit card information from a wallet kept in an adjacent pocket. “Even if these apps aren’t actively running, they can still read the infor- mation,” said Augustinowicz. Fortunately for those worried about having their information stolen, there are ways to protect against identity thieves. ~~ CLAYTON PA eBay, and as consumer tech- The Identity Stronghold smartphone application protects your credit nology advances, so too does card and other personal information from electronic theft. 66 cases that block devices from being Instead able to receive or transmit private in- formation. of worry- “These inexpensive items block the ing about radio signals needed to read the infor- mation contained on your RFID cards,” someone said De Jong. walking Both = Au- ° gustinowicz by yout and De Jong @q crowd stressed the ° importance of Pp ickp ocket- learning how ing YOu, to protect against infor- [p cop le] mation theft have tore- because as OFF time goes on ally worry i, me | its going to about ‘ = ecome a big- ° ger issue, [their] own “This kind phone of nefarious Be technology SON photo comes hand in hand with an evolving soci- ety,” said Adam Tobias, a first year health sci- ences student. “It’s all a matter of edu- cating yourself and learning how to protect your information.” For more information on electronic pickpocketing and how to protect your- self from it, visit www.idstronghold. com.“Forewarned is forearmed,” said Walt Agustinowicz De Jong. Useful in the city continued from page 1 impress some show-goers. In the prov- ince’s ‘CEV forB.C.’ display, attendees were overheard commenting about the vehicles’ limited range. Show-goer Ted Haden said that elec- tric cars are only useful in the city. “Vancouver has good transit. People that these cars are targeted at, already have a way to get around.” Haden also said that the price of electric vehicles made little economic sense. Despite high gas prices, a gas- powered vehicle is still cheaper to run in the long-term, he said. “Tt’s a nice car, but it’s really a Chev- rolet Cruze with a battery and differ- ent sheetmetal,” said Ted Haden of the Chevrolet Volt, one of the electric ve- hicles on display. “But even with the incentive, it'd take years to make up the difference.” Mercedes employee Rod Matthews was adamant that electric vehicles are out of reach for many people. He toured an electric Smart car last year, asking Canadians what they would pay for an electric vehicle. “Most people said they would pay 25 to 380 thousand [dollars],” said Mat- thews. “It’s really down to economies of scale,” said Tim Vittetoe. His company supplies chargers for the Nissan Leaf. “Like any technology, it needs early adopters to fund the next generation of cheaper products.” Mercer said the province’s $5,000 in- centive on electric vehicles will have an impact, both immediately and down the road. “To get these vehicles down in price, they need to be mass produced,” said Mercer. “To do that, they are incentiv- ized now.” The incentive is claimed at the point of sale, which lowers the cost of a vehicle like Mitsubishi’s ‘i MiEV,’ The compact four-door hatchback lists at over $32,000. Snail mail policy costs high An antiquated provincial regulation is wasting municipal tax dollars by requiring postal notices By CARLY RHIANNA SMITH seems people still prefer old-fash- ioned methods of communication when it comes to their local govern- ment. Va 6 I: our rapidly evolving digital age, it Lauren Hewson, legislative and ad- ministrative — ser- People by vices manager at the city of Co- and larg e quitlam, said the qye say- city has not at- . tempted to move ing they its communication want to be entirely online. eps “There’s _ defi- notified nitely been discus- qbout city sion about it and t d we do try to pro- events an vide additional no- city issues ice by email, bu we don’t use it asa throug h primary form of the news- notice,” said Hews- on. paper or Vivienne Wilke, mail. Surrey’s general manager of finance Lauren Hewson and __ technology, recommended at a council meeting on Monday that the city be able to elec- tronically mail notices and documents to Surrey residents. The Local Government Act and the Community Charter are two pieces of provincial legislation that require mu- nicipalities to communicate with indi- viduals by “mail.” However, “mail” is restricted to post- age-prepaid mail delivered by Canada Post. This means cities are unable to be- come paperless. Even if an individual would prefer to be emailed, the legisla- tion requires they be sent a physical piece of mail. The city of Surrey apparently spent over $800,000 on postage in 2011. The amount spent on paper products for mail was not provided. As the current legislation stands, making the move from snail mail to email is out of the question. Diane Watts is putting forward to the province a request for a resolution that would allow municipalities to pri- marily send emails instead of snail mail. Hewson said the city of Coquitlam has not been directed by council to re- place physical notices with email. They also do a survey of Coquitlam residents every year, and the results of the past few years have shown people are not anxious to make the switch to email. “People by and large are saying they want to be notified about city events and city issues through the newspaper or mail, so the more traditional meth- ods,” said Hewson. However, the benefits of sending no- tices and documents electronically would extend beyond finance. “Going entirely paperless may not be feasible because there are people that the government has to communi- cate with that may not have computers or email, especially a lot of older peo- ple, but I would say reducing paper is important,” said Ian Hanington, David Suzuki Foundation editorial and com- munications specialist. In addition to the mass of paper that could be saved, mail delivery emits greenhouse gasses. Pollution and paper waste could be reduced if cities were able to send doc- uments electronically. THE ECO paper trail HE The paperless office, once pre- dicted as a result of information technology (IT) has not transpired. Source: Interna- tional Institute for Environment and Development (IED), September 1996) HE industry analysts estimate that 95% of business information is still stored on paper. Source: IIED Discussion Paper (IED, London, September 1996) ME Recycling 54 KG of newspaper will save one tree, Source: Govern- ment of Canada, Digital Collections HE Paper and paper products accounts for more than 1/3 of all Canada’s waste. Source: En- vironment Canada ME Canada uses 6 million tonnes of paper and paperboard an- nually. Only 1/4 of Canada's waste paper and paper- board is recycled. Source: Environ- ment Canada Key DNA testimony delayed at missing women inquiry An expert witness sched- uled to testity in Tuesday’s session did not take the stand, delaying progress in the inqury By STACY THOMAS The five-month-long missing women inquiry hit another snag today when a DNA lab expert, who testified at the 2007 Robert Pickton trial, was unable to testify. Kathleen Horley’s testimony was de- layed due to bureaucratic details. Horley’s expertise, which was ex- pected to create forward momentum in the inquiry, will be postponed until Wednesday. Witnesses who did appear on Tues- day included Freda Ens, former direc- tor of the Native Liaison Society, who liaised between the Vancouver Police Department and aboriginals from 1991 until 2008. Victim assistance worker Morris Bates as well as detective constable Jay Johns and constable George Law- son — who were all members of the NLS at the time of the Robert Pickton trial — also gave testimony. Lawyer Neil Chantler, representa- tive of the families of 25 missing and murdered B.C. women, questioned the witnesses about the role the NLS held in the community. “People coming to you thought they were engaging the Vancouver Police Department, they thought they were coming to you in the same way they were coming to the police?” Chantler asked Bates. Bates said yes, but repeatedly stated that they did not deal directly with missing persons cases, but referred them to police. “I’m not a cop,” he said. When Chantler asked Bates whether the NLS was a “drawbridge” to the VPD that was “sometimes open and closed other times,” Bates had no com- ment. The conduct of Sandy Cameron, for- mer civilian clerk to the missing-wom- en unit of the VPD, was also reviewed. Cameron was responsible for priori- tizing missing-women related calls from 911 call-centres. It has been heard during the inquiry that she did not accept some calls about missing sex r4 4 trade workers and that she and two police constables Peop le delayed the investi- coming gation into the missing women to you with derogatory thought statements about prostitutes. they were She has_ also engaging been accused of be- the Van- ing discriminatory against aborigi- couver nals. Police De- During Tues- day’s hearing, Ens partment. said that through Neil Chantler her involvement with Project Even- handed — a VPD- led taskforce into the missing women — she has realized that race was not the issue that they originally thought. She said Cameron’s lack of response dominated the Project Evenhanded meetings. “Many of those families were upper- middle-class families. For me that was areal eye opener,” Ens said. “Every family, whether white or black or Metis, they were all treated the same,” she said.