Thermal cameras take special photographs of an image and colors the photograph based on the amount of heat it is emitting. These special cameras used to be inaccessible to the general public because they were so expensive. As the price of the cameras go down, more and more creativity has been applied to their use. Many of these uses are positive. For example, thermal cameras can be used to photograph your home to show where additional insulation needs to be added or doors and windows need sealing. Identity thieves have discovered a not-so-good use for the thermal camera. When you press the keys to enter your PIN, heat transfers from the tips of your fingers to the keys. Identity thieves can then immediately snap a thermal photograph of the keypad and determine which keys were pressed. In some cases, the order the keys were pressed can be determined because the first key pressed will have the least residual heat and so forth. Metal keys (such as on ATMs) tend to photograph better than non-metal keys.
Put this simple practice in place to reduce your risk of your PIN being stolen in this way. After you enter your PIN on a keypad, place your whole hand over the keypad (touching the keys) and leave it there for a count of five. This will heat the whole keypad so that when a thermal image is taken ALL of the keys will show hot - not just the ones that you touched to enter your PIN. This five seconds may save you the years it may take to overcome your PIN being stolen. -Brandon Blankenship (205)912-8248
Blankenship Harrelson, LLP
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