Archives => 2006 => Topic started by: sandbox on July 14, 2006, 02:35:12 PM
Title: e-Passports
Post by: sandbox on July 14, 2006, 02:35:12 PM
e-Passports: Ready or not here they come The State Department expresses confidence in "e-Passports" while technologists fret about their security risks.
CNNMoney.com features a skeptical article about the US State Department's plans to soon issue RFID passports (currently being tested on State Department employees). One fear is that they can be hacked for information about you. And even if they can't, carrying around a little transmitter saying 'I'm an American! I'm an American!' isn't a fun and safe thing to do in all parts of the world." From the article: "Basically, you've given everybody a little radio-frequency doodad that silently declares 'Hey, I'm a foreigner,' says author and futurist Bruce Sterling, who lectures on the future of RFID technology. 'If nobody bothers to listen, great. If people figure out they can listen to passport IDs, there will be a lot of strange and inventive ways to exploit that for criminal purposes.'"
Title: e-Passports
Post by: kimmer on July 14, 2006, 04:46:58 PM
Charming. Just charming. Gives me the warm fuzzies.
Let's see, as the article said passports are a 10 yr. issue, so for 10 years your "chip" never gets a security patch. Oh yeah, can't wait to apply for mine.
And all of this goes on when other depts in the US Fed govt are still using "386" dinosaurs.
Not that I don't appreciate technology or anything.
Title: e-Passports
Post by: kbeartx on July 14, 2006, 06:20:37 PM
I have an ePas, went to get it cause i'm traveling to Boston a few times. The funny thing is that it's cause of the US that we have them now... not that i mind cause i love technology Also, the US was giving every other country a lot of pain by trying to enforce rules like this on them for visiting the US. Now it seems alot of those countries are already up to date while US is still testing them... sorry, but it's just not how you do things.
I'll shut up over it now
Title: e-Passports
Post by: pendragon on July 15, 2006, 08:26:25 AM
FWIW:
A friend of mine who works for the National Institutes of Health (certifying implantable devices, pace makers and the like), told me that many RFID readers/sensors can cause great harm, including death, to a person with such a device, if they linger too long (more than a few seconds) in the proximity of the reader.