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Updated Schedule for U.S. Biometric Passports

Posted by michael on from the papers-please dept.

SRain315 writes "The story from the Chicago Times via Yahoo! give more details about biometric information to be added to U.S. passports. Trial run this fall, full production next year. Slashdot covered this last year."

4 of 224 comments (clear)

  1. You don't get it. by John+Harrison · · Score: 4, Informative
    And neither does 99.9% of /.

    There are cryptographic protocols that are well known and widely implemented to make sure that your smart card won't even talk to anything but an authorized system. There is no way that somebody can just go out and buy an ISO 14443 reader and war drive your pocket. They need the proper keys to talk to the card and if they don't have them they are out of luck.

    --
    Lasers Controlled Games!
    1. Re:You don't get it. by John+Harrison · · Score: 3, Informative
      No, you don't get it.

      If the system is properly implemented then no human eyes will ever see the keys. They are locked in the hardware and can't get out. I am not talking about a pin to unlock the data on your card, though the cards could implement that as well. I am talking about card master keys, encryption keys, MAC keys, and key encryption keys using techniques such as Open Platform secure messaging.

      I am talking about using tamper reactive hardware like an IBM 4785 on the back end and putting unique keys on all the cards. This isn't that complicated but nobody on /. understands it and they all bitch about things that understanding it would resolve and I am sick of it.

      I'll turn off rant mode now...

      --
      Lasers Controlled Games!
  2. Re:prove it by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 4, Informative

    Name a single Constitutional right which has been curtailed since September 11

    The 1st Amendment

    The 4th Amendment

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  3. Can make things worse by Stevyn · · Score: 4, Informative

    So once these are issued, a little while later they're cracked and people make fakes relying on the notion that the passport will be checked with less scrutiny because it checks out on the computer. This is like how digital licenses are swiped to validate age when buying alcohol, but they look less at the photo. Technology like this can have the effect of making people less careful when checking someone's identity.