These days, everything is wireless, from our smartphones to car keys and sometimes the door lock. These offer all the convenience that we need. Credit cards also allow contactless payments, which are wireless, even though we never directly use wires to pay with credit cards.
All this convenience comes at a cost if some attacker can intercept the radio signals, hack the locks, or even steal money from our cards. We never know where an attacker can be, so there must be a way to keep these gadgets safe from being intercepted by attackers. One way is to use Faraday Bags. What is a Faraday Bag? Should you use one, and where can you get such a bag? I will discuss everything here.
What is a Faraday Bag?
A Faraday Bag is a small bag that resembles a Faraday Cage, except it can be carried around like a bag.
A Faraday Cage, named after the famous scientist and inventor Michael Faraday, is a cage made from metal mesh. This mesh blocks all electromagnetic waves from getting inside, and the waves released inside can’t go outside, either. If appropriately crafted, these cages are so powerful that even lightning can’t hit someone inside the cage.
Ideally, a Faraday Cage or a Faraday Bag for today’s discussion is a bag made from continuous metal. However, such continuous metal is often beyond most people’s expense limit, so the bag can have small holes or gaps. But that shouldn’t be an issue as long as the holes or gaps are smaller than the wavelengths these devices use for communication.
So, should you add a Faraday Bag to your electronic toolkit? Let’s find some practical applications and when you shouldn’t use one.
When and whether should you use a Faraday Bag?
If you are concerned about security, a Faraday Bag or multiple of them should be on your cart.
If you use contactless cards, you should keep them in a Faraday Bag. This will prevent hackers from sending signals to the card and unauthorized transactions from taking place without your consent.
You can visit your preferred online or retail store to get a Faraday wallet and keep your cards in it. For smartphones or tablets, you could use one or multiple Faraday Bags for reasons I will discuss now.
Smartphones today are devoid of removable batteries. Hence, there’s no way to ensure that the phone is not transmitting signals when switched off, at least for a regular individual. However, if you keep it in a Faraday Bag, it doesn’t matter whether it is turned on or off; it is beyond the reach of all types of networking protocols.
However, before you use your Faraday Bag and enter zen mode, thinking you are completely disconnected, wait! Check whether the Faraday Bag works.
Keep your phone in the bag, and use another phone to make a call. If the call gets through, the Faraday Bag isn’t working. However, even if your Faraday Bag works perfectly out of the box, you should check its effectiveness occasionally.
If you think somebody is tracking you or don’t want Google’s location services to track your whereabouts, switch it off. However, if you don’t want to repeatedly switch on and off the phone, keep it in a Faraday Bag, and you will be good to go.
If you suspect your phone is compromised and can’t turn it off if the malware is potent, an immediate solution is to keep it in a Faraday Bag. No matter how skilled the hackers are, the whole universe has to obey the laws of Physics, and the hackers are no exception.
In addition to credit cards and smartphones, your RFID car keys or other RFID tags can be copied if you are near a hacker, and keeping them in a Faraday Bag will keep them safe from cybercriminals.
When not to use Faraday Bags?
While Faraday Bags are cool privacy gear, you should keep some things in mind. With great powers come significant responsibilities. If you keep your phone or other gadgets in a Faraday Bag and forget afterward, you are in danger. You can’t ask others to call your phone or use the Find My Device or similar phone-finding feature.
If your Faraday Bag is stolen with your phone inside, you cannot track it down or lock it remotely.
Every technological marvel is a two-edged sword, and a Faraday Bag is no exception. If you use it responsibly, you should get one; otherwise, stay away.
So, that’s all about Faraday Bags. Do you have any questions? Feel free to comment on the same below.
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