US gets RFID passports

The Register ^ | Tuesday 15th August 2006 | John Oates

[JerseyHighlander]

Leaking RFID passports are going to be used as tracking beacons by violent kidnap and ransom crews in third world countries.

Any current "kidnap and ransom" crew currently in the business will invest as much as necessary to get hacked RFID passport readers. They will be able to sit in a cafe in intl hotels, collect 30 Americans' passports' info, run an untraceable batch credit rating and background reports, and select the cream of their crop to kidnap.

The new RFID passport lowers the necessary competence of aspiring kidnappers the world over.

How would you like to go to Colombia, Caucuses, etc. knowing that info?

[backhoe]

So, I guess they have not read this yet...

Biometric passport cracked and cloned

[PissAndVinegar]

I can't refute people who don't know the facts...so let me share this tid bit:

In this application (Passports), the chip is designed to operate within 10 centimeters (less than 4 inches) of a chip reader using appropriate public keys. Experts indicate that the information on the chip cannot be easily accessed surreptitiously. Even so, the Department of State has incorporated a reliable anti-skimming feature and Basic Access Control to mitigate the threat of skimming in all electronic passports.

Eavesdropping can only occur while a reader using the proper public key is reading the chip. Eavesdropping is difficult to achieve in a secured port-of-entry environment that is government-operated in most cases. In such an environment, the equipment needed to eavesdrop would be obvious and detectable to authorities managing the port of entry environment. Governments can reduce the threat of eavesdropping by requiring all chip readers to be electronically shielded to prevent signals from being transmitted beyond the reader.

To prevent skimming and eavesdropping of data, Basic Access Control (BAC) is employed. BAC is similar to a PIN used in ATM or credit card transactions. In the case of the electronic passport, characters from the printed machine-readable zone of the passport must be read first in order to unlock the chip for reading. Thus, when an electronic passport is presented to an inspector, the inspector must scan the printed lines of data in order to be able to read the data on the chip. To further protect against skimming, the U.S. e-passport will include a shielding material in the passport cover that will make unauthorized reading of the passport very difficult from any appreciable distance as long as the passport is closed.


Now go discover dogpile, yahoo! or some other search engine and educate yourselves on what the risks really are

[Marine Inspector]

Damnit, my passport is up for renewal NEXT year.

Don't worry; skimming isn't a problem with the US passport as it is with the German passport. The RFID chip in the US passport is locked and can’t be opened by a skimmer.

[evets]

I've just had one implanted. No worries.