[aldo_14]

Glad to see (er, glad?) I'm not the only person staring at a horribly oppressive future regime of institutionalised identity 'management', then.....  me, I keep my passport in a tin box, although I renewed early enough to avoid the Horrible Biometric Passport of Massive ID Theft And Abuse.  For a year, anyways.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/15/us_gets_rfid_passports/

The US Department of State has started issuing passports containing RFID chips and remains confident the technology "will take security and travel facilitation to a new level".

Despite the problems with the chips - that they can be read from a distance, potentially identifying US citizens, and that they can be copied - the Department of State is confident it has done enough to make them safe.

The passport includes "metallic anti-skimming material" - tin foil, presumably. It also uses Basic Access Control technology to protect it from skimming or eavesdropping.

The chip will hold the same information as the biographic page of the actual passport - name, date of birth, gender, place of birth, date of issue and expiry, passport number, and a digital image of the holder's picture.

More details from the US Department of State here. ®

[Shade]

It'll be real funny when those things start spreading viruses. Which it has already been proven they can do.

[Colonol Dekker]

Hmmm, v nice idea, i'm sure someone will be able to bluejack equivalent the details then forge a viable copy too match them though.

[aldo_14]

Hmmm, v nice idea, i'm sure someone will be able to bluejack equivalent the details then forge a viable copy too match them though.

Well, they can already do it with UK passports; the security spec openly allows people to copy the passport data, so it's easy to clone the passport (although you need to break the encryption to modify it, it's still useful to mimic the passport of someone similar-looking to you).  Moreso, the only protection against this is the layer of metal in the passport cover; in theory so you can only read it when held open, but this same tech is to be used in ID cards, and how do you 'close' those?

[Kosh]

Despite the problems with the chips - that they can be read from a distance, potentially identifying US citizens, and that they can be copied - the Department of State is confident it has done enough to make them safe.

In other words it makes those of us overseas big targets for repraisels the next time the US does something stupid and we could make fakes and sell them on the black market. Yeah, really safe. Good thing I won't need to renew my passport for another 9 years or so.

You can never totally secure technology, I just wish they would figure it out.


EDIT: And did you guys notice how they quietly slipped this through? I can't find this on MSNBC's website, there's no public uproar, no nothing. What is wrong with the American public......

[Mefustae]

EDIT: And did you guys notice how they quietly slipped this through? I can't find this on MSNBC's website, there's no public uproar, no nothing. What is wrong with the American public......

If you complain, the boogey-man will get you.

[aldo_14]

They might welcome it; apparently a lot of the more fundie types see this sort of thing as 'mark of the beast' and a sign of the coming rapture.

[Mefustae]

Isn't it true that the 'rapture' isn't actually alluded to anyway in the Bible?

[Kosh]

They might welcome it; apparently a lot of the more fundie types see this sort of thing as 'mark of the beast' and a sign of the coming rapture.

I'm not seeing the connection

[Herra Tohtori]

They refer to Rev.13:16-17...

16. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

[aldo_14]

i.e. that any form of personally identifiable 'chip' system (such as RFID passports and Id cards) shall lead to implantation and whatever apocalyptic gumpf comes after that.

[Colonol Dekker]

Ahh smeg, This means that some Wesley Snipes Clone is gonna rip my hand off to access my space credits in the future................Bloody Cryo-Cons.

[Kazan]

EDIT: And did you guys notice how they quietly slipped this through? I can't find this on MSNBC's website, there's no public uproar, no nothing. What is wrong with the American public......

If you complain, the boogey-man will get you.

no.. it's if you aren't in lockstep with the fascists then you're a liberal terrorist america hating bastard....

when it's the christofascists that are pissing and ****ting all over the constitution