Thu 27 Oct 2005
Passports to get RFID chip implants | Tech News on ZDNet
All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.
This news concerns me, a passport carrying traveller who frequents places where people would happily steal my identity if they could.
As soon as I get a passport with an RFID chip – which won’t be too far in the distant future as my third set of inserted passport pages is nearly now full – I will also get a hammer. Physically destroying the RFID chip should render it useless, while leaving my paper passport intact.
Thanks to Dave Selig for this simple non-technical solution!
6 Responses to “ Passports to get RFID chip implants, Hertzler to get hammer ”
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Pingback from Hertzler’s Outpost » Solution to US Passport Problem
May 18th, 2006 at 9:26 pm[...] Yesterday I solved my looming passport problem; the upcoming inclusion of an RFID chip in all newly issued US passports. This is a problem for me, and anyone else who is even the slightest bit paranoid, because it makes identity theft one step easier for hi-tech identity thieves. (Read more about how the Dutch passport RFID chip encryption has already been cracked.) [...]
October 27th, 2005 at 4:39 pm
Won’t they attempt to scan the smashed chip and then pronounce the passport invalid or defective?
October 27th, 2005 at 7:06 pm
Well I am assuming that it will take quite a few years before there is no paper-based passport system. Since passports are valid for 10 years from the date of issue, that should give me until September 2016 before they could possibly be RFID chip only. I’m hoping that my “defective” RFID chip will simply be considered defective. I assume they will normaly run across many defective chips and will have to accomodate them. Hopefully in that 10 year window they will implement some reasonable security measures that I can live with.
Like maybe they will start using biometric security means – fingerprint or retina scan. And if that doesn’t cause the most amillenial stalwart to question what is actually the mark of the beast I don’t know what will!
October 27th, 2005 at 10:12 pm
What’s The Problem? Sounds pretty easy.
Whats the threat?
In the passport rules it released Tuesday, the State Department said that it was taking several security precautions. The RFID chips will use encrypted digital signatures to prevent tampering; and they will be so-called passive RFID chips, which do not broadcast personal information unless within inches of an RFID reader machine. To protect against data leaks, the e-passports will come with an “antiskimming” material that blocks radio waves on the passport’s back and spine, the State Department notice said.
October 27th, 2005 at 10:36 pm
True. These are several improvements from the last version I had heard about. But the encryption keys are not unbreakable, the RFID material only works when the passport is closed, and the close range broadcasting could be triggered by someone with gear hidden under their clothes.
Now that last point may be well into the realm of paranoia, I realize.
Or maybe instead of a hammer I just need an aluminum foil passport holder!
October 28th, 2005 at 12:00 am
“And if that doesn’t cause the most amillenial stalwart to question what is actually the mark of the beast I don’t know what will!”
Yeah, I’m sure it is just a matter of time before this shows up on Tim Lahaye’s End Times Prophecy Meter.