modification of values and hacking. At the 27th annual German Chaos Communication Congress hacker conference ("27C3") in 2010, German free software programmer Harald Welte showed that it is possible to artificially change the amount of money stored on a first-generation EasyCard —based on the MIFARE Classic chip— using nothing more than a USB RFID reader and a laptop computer running open source software. Welte denounced the system for its poor choice of cipher and lack of user authentication. He was able to map out and manipulate the card's internal format in 2 days on a trip in Taiwan. However, hacking the EasyCard remains illegal, and in September 2011 a 24-year-old engineer was arrested on suspicion of fraudulently using a hacked EasyCard. EasyCard has since addressed several of the weaknesses in later card hardware revisions but remains vulnerable to several known attacks on the cryptography of MIFARE Classic that cannot be addressed without breaking backwards compatibility to existing infrastructure. Reception The EasyCard has been very popular since its launch in 2002. By 2010, over 23 million cards had been issued.(The source did not say what cards have returned as subpriced) By 2014, more than 50 million cards have been issued. Critics have called for stronger measures to promote name registration of EasyCards in order to protect consumer rights. Over NT$600 million is lost yearly in lost cards. As of 2009, fewer than 0.02% of cards had been registered. External links Official homepage of the EasyCard Corporation References Contactless smart cards Taipei Metro Fare collection systems in Taiwan Products introduced in 2002 2000 establishments in Taiwan