Joah

Well, for starters a skimmer wouldn't be able to read a signal from your wristband unless he was within 10cm or so, and I imagine someone going around and touching peoples wristbands would get noticed and dealt with pretty quickly. That's actually a pretty important security measure of NFC in general. If someone is close enough to interface with your NFC device, you'd probably know it, as they practically have to be touching. The way these NFC tags work is using some magic called electrodynamic induction. Basically the reader sends a relatively powerful RF signal at the wristband, and the wristband reflects some of that energy back to make a new, weaker signal, without needing a battery or any other external power source. The reflected RF energy is enough to power a tiny microcontroller in the wristband as well. What this means is the wristband can run code, enabling it to do something more complex than giving off a simple key. There will probably be some sort of handshake process to verify a wristbands legitimacy, making them harder to tamper with/dupicate/spoof. These two conditions, in my mind, make it not worth the time and effort to a hacker. I mean, credit cards are now using a very similar technology. RFID Car keys have been around since the mid 90s, and have lead to a decrease in auto theft. You don't hear about criminals "skimming" key fob tags and stealing cars, do you?

Phew, we are flying out on February 1st. Just missed the downtime! Hopefully the downtime won't run longer than expected, but they seem pretty good at estimating these sorts of things.

Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World in February. Possibly Cedar Point later in the year (I've never been) but nothing is set in stone.

Going to USF then WDW in February, so first coaster I ride will probably be Hungarian Horntail. I would ride the Hulk first, but all of the friends I'm going with are major potter-heads so I'm sure we'll go to that part of the park first.