A live test of e-Passports, that contain contactless chips with biographic and biometric information and the readers that are capable of reading these e-Passports, begins January 15, 2006 at Terminal G at San Francisco International Airport (SFO). This test is a collaborative effort between the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore that will run through April 15, 2006.
The e-Passport contains the holder’s biographic information and a biometric identifier, in this case a digital photograph, embedded in a contactless chip set in the passport. The inspection process for those participating does not change.
The e-Passports being tested are enabled with a security feature known as Basic Access Control (BAC), which helps prevent the unauthorized reading, or “skimming,” of information from e Passports.
Uh-huh.
This does’nt surpise me at all
How long would it take before they tested and enstated that? I’m currently getting my passport now but I’m in Canada.
I’m not too worried about the data that’s on there. The level of sophistication required to acquire and decrypt my details is pretty high. I’d be more worried about a lightning strike.
The scenario that give me the willies is the “ping” scenario. Most of us know about the internet tool called ping. A terrorist (or anyone else with strong motivations against the US) is walking down the streets of Paris or Frankfort or Cairo or wherever looking for Americans. He doesn’t care who the American is, he just cares that someone is an American. He walks down the street getting within a foot or two of people until he gets an RFID ping.
RFID Ping == American.
American == Target.
I’ve yet to hear anyone adequately appease this concern.
Well, currently, it isn’t all that tough to spot an American tourist anywhere, especially here in Scotland.
They tend to be the ones who are wandering about gawping at stuff with cameras hung round their necks, asking daft questions (one of the ones I got when visiting the US was “Do you get TV in Scotland?” the fact that we invented the thing is apparently irrelevant). But more obvious tends to be the accents.
I am sure it is just as easy to spot a Scot. We are the tight fisted folks that wander about depressedly saying probably just as dumb things like “What did this guy on the $ bill do?” (Or at least I did.
Basicly my point is, if somebody really wants to target someone they can do it just as easily by some quick observation and listening, so this e-passport thing isn’t too much more risky.
Also, if you let things like that bother you, then the terrorist’s aims have partially been accomplished. You are now afraid to do things that normally wouldn’t be an issue.
I work with a small Japanese technology company that is already responding to “Skimming Theft” in Japan With a product called “Skim Black” . I guess criminals in Japan are already using skimming devices and stealing train pass credits and the like. I told them not to call it “Skim Black” because it was the wrong word! I said “call it Skim Block or Skimming Blocker” in my limited japanese, but the chief engineer said “yes, yes skim black is a good name”. I give up!
Goggle “Skim Black” to see the product. I heard that they are going to make a jacket lined with it.
I for one will be looking for a tin-foil wallet company to invest in!
I guess the question should be how much information will be on the chip. How much of that information SHOULD be on the chip. Apparently, so far, the amount is small. Considering the actions of dubya’s administration though, I see the amount increasing to include say, retina scans. Then we will see the abuse happen.
Chuck,
I’m with ya.