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57 Comments
- AmyVernon, on 08/07/2008, -0/+13I feel safer already.
- geniuslocimusic, on 08/07/2008, -0/+9Fast fwd 10 year: "My fellow citizens, this is precisely the reason why our country needs to be able to simply implant these chips inside your hand". "Be a patriot, get your freedom chip today!"
- GregR, on 08/07/2008, -0/+7Is anyone really surprised by this?
- ApokalypseNow, on 08/07/2008, -0/+6I only got my passport post-chip. 15 seconds in the microwave and one bright flash later, my passport is secure.
- mdman, on 08/07/2008, -0/+6Real easy fix for that... if you have a new passport with an RFID chip, simply whack the chip with a hammer... your passport is still good, but the chip is de-activated, permanatly.
- nybble41, on 08/07/2008, -0/+6Ten years? What cause do you have for such optimism?
- ApokalypseNow, on 08/07/2008, -0/+6Oh yes, it absolutely works. Legal? I dunno, but then again so is stealing my identity. If it comes down to it, then "Gee Mr. TSA agent, sir, I don't know why this isn't working - can you just look at it the old fashioned way? I don't wanna miss my flight..."
- PopcornDave, on 08/07/2008, -0/+5@ApokalypseNow
If it comes down to it, then "Gee Mr. TSA agent, sir, I don't know why this isn't working - can you just look at it the old fashioned way? I don't wanna miss my flight..."
You're assuming that they have basic reading skills. The ones I've dealt with would have a hard time making change at a convenience market with a register that told them how much to return to the customer.
I'm sure that there are some that can actually finish the hidden picture puzzles in Highlights for Children, but I haven't seen any of them yet. - braveryonions, on 08/07/2008, -0/+3That's comforting.
- dondara, on 08/07/2008, -0/+3Are you suggesting passports are pointless and just there to pacify the populace? Oh, you mean they are easily hacked. Agreed
- merlinus, on 08/07/2008, -0/+2This is why, as I've been saying for years... it's just plain stupid to depend on RFID tags for anything sensitive. The old fashioned way is the only sure way.
(I love technology and progress and creativity but I'm kind of a luddite when it comes to using it everywhere - often it's a bad idea. Same goes for using electronic voting machines unless you have them produce a printed record of each vote so they can be hand counted if necessary.) - MrWhite7, on 08/07/2008, -0/+2Step 1: Remove Passport from pouch
Step:2: Place Passport in (someone else's) microwave oven.
Step 3: Microwave on high for 20 seconds.
Step 4: Let cool and place in pants pocket away from genitals. - bixby1, on 08/07/2008, -1/+3This is daunting.
- rinpoche, on 08/07/2008, -0/+2nope. Whoever thought this system would be secure needs to be fired immediately for being an idiot.
- counterplex, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Something tells me that people who either look middle-eastern or have middle-eastern sounding names will be "randomly selected" to receive their freedom chip before anyone else.
- counterplex, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Does that actually work? Is it legal? If so, it can be a powerful act of civil disobedience.
- ShakeWell, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1fiery burning wreckage
- sellernodoubt, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Thank you MR. Bush for a another job well done on protecting us from Terrorist....umm! where are those "weapons of mass destruction" again, that you promised us?
- PopcornDave, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1And instead the company that got the contract sent them on a vacation to the Caribbean to thank them for their business.
- SpacePoet, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Hey, it's just like our voting system!
- Zippo, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1I'll stick with my good ol' regular Canadian passport, k thx.
- zip000, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Unfortunately, people will go for whatever the government gives them.
- DrDabbles, on 08/19/2008, -0/+1Why can't it be near my genitals? I'd love to hear your explanation of this.
- Harbinger1080, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Wow, huge surprise there... never would have seen this coming...
I love the credit card I just got with an RFID chip in it even more now, too.
(if you're an idiot, and really need it-- /sarcasm) - N3XUS, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1I hear hammers work just as well...
- ElectricKetchup, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1I dugg it down because that's not how it should be. The info shouldn't be encrypted, it should be cryptographically signed with a private key that's only on the chip, and cryptographically signed with a private key of the country who issued it. That way it wouldn't be able to be coppied ( unless you find a way to get to the private key)
- sapran, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1These are normal consequences of implementing a dumb idea.
- manitoba98xp, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1This is stupid. If the system were remotely well-designed, you can just use simple, well-known cryptography to make this kind of approach impossible. It's called a digital signature, or HMAC (Hash Message Authentication Code). You hash all of the data in the passport and encrypt it with the private key of some central authority (presumably the government of the nation in question). Then the reader decrypts this with the matching public key and compares the hashes.
Without the private key, which should be kept in utmost confidence, it is IMPOSSIBLE to forge the data.
It sounds like this is what the "Public Key Directory" is intended to do, but why these nations are so cavalierly allowing the forgery of citizenship documents is beyond me. It isn't that complicated, either. - sndream, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Why are ppl surprise? The whole program are probably headed by someone who dude who barely know anything about computers and the contract awarded to the company who dough out the most politicians' campaign funds. I am not against E-passport, but I just have no faith in government handling technologies.
- hakz, on 08/08/2008, -0/+1thank god I renewed just before the e-passport came out
- inactive, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1"At this point, there has been no evidence to suggest that an e-passport has been successfully cloned and passed off as genuine in a real-life situation"
well if a hacked passport *was* good enough to pass through customs, how *could* there be any evidence?
this is rather troubling. - reverbhell, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1If you hand delivered a letter you would know it hadn't been tampered with, pretty much. If you posted it and it got opened by the mail man, you wouldn't blame the letter because it was easy to open, you would blame the system behind the delivery.
If the system is still in it's infancy, or not every country supports it properly, then how can you say it is or isn't secure - especially when the security itself depends on this verification? - TheSnuffster, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Step 5: Top it off with basil and oregano, and enjoy.
- ncc74656m, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1Look up DIFRwear, and similar RFID absorbing wallets and passport covers if you don't want to chance your own passport being absorbed into any future scam like this. I've been using mine successfully for two years.
- inactive, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1 No, just to many 'nerds' KNOW it can be hacked, and always can be.
- inactive, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1 This is only news to those who haven't sat on their butts in Computer Science classes, working on their pasty white complex..
- dankers, on 08/07/2008, -0/+1If its paper, it can and will be copied.
It works both ways but digital is the future whether you like it or not, the kinks in the program will be ironed out . There is just too many nerds constantly saying "fail, fail, fail" and it will never be accomplished, - rinpoche, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0Passport chips will make us LESS safe.
- cawpin, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0They're all the same.
- N3XUS, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0And this is why I'm glad I have an old passport....
There are a number of ways to protect yourself from ID theft like this including sticking it in a tin foil "packet". What gets me is that you knew this was going to happen. They should have all the info encrypted locally and only can be unencrypted by a computer attached to the network. Thus you would need a key to read it. I'm sure the user's device is not attached to some network in the UN containing this info. This is a similar issue that they have with credit cards. The information is being unencrypted locally by the reader, which is extremely unsafe. - mithrasinvictus, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0This expensive technology fetish needs to stop. Anything can be cracked and if it is valuable enough, it will be.
Passports just need a serial number that can be checked against a database, anything else should be there to facilitate non-electronic identification (photo, description etc) - getrealnow, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0same
- mysticturner, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0Even easier - 15 to 30 seconds in a microwave.
- Meccabilly, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0No, you got it all wrong - that it has taken this long is viewed as a success!
It's an arms race you see and the authorities always knew this was gonna be cracked, they actually thought it would be cracked WAY before this!
The next stage is to bio metrically implant tracking chips into each of us, tracking our every whereabouts 24/7 - and of course if you're doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. They expect this to work until 2011 when we will all be restricted to our homes for our own safety and in 2015 we will all be attached to the Matrix. - exqvirevervm, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0Don't you have to be a user to comment? How does that ***** taste?
- Wiini, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0I don't know why, but I'm digging you up.
- Shadow120, on 08/07/2008, -1/+0Safety dance
Dan dan dan dananana dan dan, dan dan dan danana dan. - UnleashX, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0An article about British passports and the UN ... with a picture of a US passport ...
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Show 51 - 61 of 61 discussions
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