islamirama
www.netmuslims.com
The ID Chip You Don't Want in Your Passport
The first RFID passports ("E-passport") were issued by Malaysia in 1998. In addition to infoormation also contained on the visual data page of the passport, Malaysian e-passports record the travel history (time, date, and place) of entries and exits from the country.
Other countries that insert RFID inpassports include Norway (2005),[52] Japan (March 1, 2006), most EU countries (around 2006) including Spain, Ireland and the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States (2007), Serbia (July 2008), Republic of Korea (August 2008), Taiwan (December 2008), Albania (January 2009), The Philippines (August 2009), Republic of Macedonia (2010).
All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1, 2007 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats and track you.
RFID stands for "radio-frequency identification." Passports with RFID chips store an electronic copy of the passport infoormation: your name, a digitized picture, etc. And in the future, the chip might store fingerprints or digital visas from various countries.
By itself, this is no problem. But RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate. Like the chips used for automatic toll collection on roads or automatic fare collection on subways, these chips operate via proximity. The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: Your passport infoormation might be read without your knowledge or consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your citizenship.
The other security mechanisms are also vulnerable, and several security researchers have already discovered flaws. One found that he could identify individual chips via unique characteristics of the radio transmissions. Another successfully cloned a chip. The State Department called this a "meaningless stunt," pointing out that the researcher could not read or change the data. But the researcher spent only two weeks trying; the security of your passport has to be strong enough to last 10 years.
"The cover of the new passport book is printed with a special symbol representing the embedded chip. The symbol will appear in port–of–entry areas where the electronic passport book can be read." - http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79960.pdf
Whatever happens, if you have a passport with an RFID chip, you're stuck. And although the United States has said that a nonworking chip will not invalidate a passport, it is unclear if one with a deliberately damaged chip will be honored.
Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!
1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover; the chip is embedded in the back.
2) Sorry, “accidentally” leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won’t work. You’re more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.
3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave – the chip could burst into flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt passport?
4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.
Btw, tampering with a passport is punishable up to 25 years in prison, so proceed with your own risk.
Reader Comments:
Microwave will almost certainly work. Hammer probably does as well. I do some RF engineering, and a microwave oven will fry the transistors in seconds. You can also use an exacto knife and just remove it from the back.
The first RFID passports ("E-passport") were issued by Malaysia in 1998. In addition to infoormation also contained on the visual data page of the passport, Malaysian e-passports record the travel history (time, date, and place) of entries and exits from the country.
Other countries that insert RFID inpassports include Norway (2005),[52] Japan (March 1, 2006), most EU countries (around 2006) including Spain, Ireland and the UK, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States (2007), Serbia (July 2008), Republic of Korea (August 2008), Taiwan (December 2008), Albania (January 2009), The Philippines (August 2009), Republic of Macedonia (2010).
All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1, 2007 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats and track you.
RFID stands for "radio-frequency identification." Passports with RFID chips store an electronic copy of the passport infoormation: your name, a digitized picture, etc. And in the future, the chip might store fingerprints or digital visas from various countries.
By itself, this is no problem. But RFID chips don't have to be plugged in to a reader to operate. Like the chips used for automatic toll collection on roads or automatic fare collection on subways, these chips operate via proximity. The risk to you is the possibility of surreptitious access: Your passport infoormation might be read without your knowledge or consent by a government trying to track your movements, a criminal trying to steal your identity or someone just curious about your citizenship.
The other security mechanisms are also vulnerable, and several security researchers have already discovered flaws. One found that he could identify individual chips via unique characteristics of the radio transmissions. Another successfully cloned a chip. The State Department called this a "meaningless stunt," pointing out that the researcher could not read or change the data. But the researcher spent only two weeks trying; the security of your passport has to be strong enough to last 10 years.
"The cover of the new passport book is printed with a special symbol representing the embedded chip. The symbol will appear in port–of–entry areas where the electronic passport book can be read." - http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/79960.pdf
Whatever happens, if you have a passport with an RFID chip, you're stuck. And although the United States has said that a nonworking chip will not invalidate a passport, it is unclear if one with a deliberately damaged chip will be honored.
Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful – tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison. Not to mention the “special” customs search, with rubber gloves. Bon voyage!
1) RFID-tagged passports have a distinctive logo on the front cover; the chip is embedded in the back.
2) Sorry, “accidentally” leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won’t work. You’re more likely to ruin the passport itself than the chip.
3) Forget about nuking it in the microwave – the chip could burst into flames, leaving telltale scorch marks. Besides, have you ever smelled burnt passport?
4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.
Btw, tampering with a passport is punishable up to 25 years in prison, so proceed with your own risk.
Reader Comments:
Microwave will almost certainly work. Hammer probably does as well. I do some RF engineering, and a microwave oven will fry the transistors in seconds. You can also use an exacto knife and just remove it from the back.