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RFID Cards to Include Tin Foil Hats?
An anonymous reader writes "The tinfoil hat finally gains government approval. From the story: 'Wrap an RFID chip [of the US passport] inside a Faraday cage, and the electromagnetic waves from the chip reader can't get in and activate the chip. The State Department says it may use the principle to give travelers an added sense of security. No, there won't be rolls of aluminum foil included with every passport. Instead, the passport cover may include a network of wires woven into the fabric. Fold the passport shut, and there's your Faraday cage. Even Schneier agrees that a properly shielded passport cover should solve the problem. He wonders why this wasn't included in the original plans for the new passports. 'It took a bunch of criticism before they even mentioned it,' Schneier said. And he hopes the anti-snooping technology is thoroughly tested before the new passports are introduced next spring.'" We've also seen this suggested in the past.
A stun gun is portable, works great, leaves no marks, and has pretty blue dancing lights.
Err... couldn't you just put your passports in whatever bag you carry on the plane? That way when you go through the metal detectors, you just take your bag off, and you don't have to worry about passports showing up via metal detection. Keep them close together in the bag and when x-rayed they may not even be able to tell there's two in there. Though I could be very wrong about this, so take it with a grain of salt ;)
Oh, there's no need to wait--that's already here! This site sells shielded shirts, aprons, and even socks! And yes, they also have a shielded baseball cap.
There are two routes to killing an RFID chip:
1. Some RFID chips (such as EPCglobal Gen2 tags) have a kill password that can be issued to command erasure of the entire PROM, or otherwise totally disable the tag. Gen2 tags have a 32-bit kill password.
2. Virtually all RFID chips can be killed by subjecting them to strong RF radiation. This will induce a lethal voltage and blow out the internal circuitry. Some existing EAS systems use this technique to disable their tags.
Barcodes can't truly store information, and they misread all the time. I work at a library that uses barcodes, and the bc scanners will misread every 1 out of 50 books, or try to read the desk, mouse.. what have you. And a misread in this situation is not what you want.
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997
A metallic grid blocks radio waves and electric fields. They pretty much hit and spread along the outside. That's why large antennae on roofs often look like trees; they're essentially Faraday cages catching the broadcast TV signal
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
- They (incorrectly to their own knowledge) deny implications of RFID (in passports or otherwise) for the bearer's personal safety
- They want to force RFID chips inside passports
- Then they promise to shield it so the passport needs to be opened anyway - but could still be identified as e.g. a US one even when closed, and potentially still be read out with special (i.e. simply more powerful and/or sensitive) equipment, despite the apparent perception of security
- Unlike with optical reading, where the document can simply be put out of sight, the bearer has no way of knowing whether and when an RFID shield actually works
- Why pretend that only governments (or "the good guys" in general) would be able to procure RFID readers? This technology is not rocket science, and it could be every thug's dream come true (especially as the European Central Bank even seems to consider putting it into their money) - so "finally" for the nastier elements of society, remote assessment of who might be a "promising" victim e.g. for abduction, robbery or worse becomes possible
So there is always certain inconvenience -if not danger- to the bearer, but not a single valid reason for embedding RFID into a passport: If it needs to be opened anyway, and faster machine-readability than with the current (already standardized) printed text is required, a simple printed barcode would do, at much greater reliability. Make no mistake, if RFID is enforced even though it does not have any benefit in the proposed application, there have to be ulterior motives for its use - then, however, it is no conspiracy theory to suggest that future mischief is implied in this scenario.ahhh, wrong.
RFID is usually at 13.56 MHz, although they can operate in several different bands.
I can assure you that ALL shielding has only "so much" effectiveness. Since Schneier is not an RF geek, he may not know this.
Any wire mesh the gummint puts in will NOT prevent reading at quite a distance with the proper equipment.
I think these would work as well, and they're not made by crackpots ;)
From Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd Ed. (2002):
Mumetal
[f. mu (l being conventionally used to denote permeability) + metal n. (and a.).]
The proprietary name of an alloy of iron that contains approximately 75 to 78 per cent nickel, 4 to 6 per cent copper, and 1 1/2 to 2 per cent chromium by weight and is a useful material for transformer cores and magnetic shields because of its high permeability...
First cited use: 1924 Trade Marks Jrnl. 16 Apr. 858 Mumetal. Metallic alloys, unwrought or partly wrought. The Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, Limited, London
Define terrorist.
There was a case several years ago regarding
an illegal alien who had a habit of riding
freight trains all over the USA. Granted that
he is not a terrorist, but he is a psychopathic
serial murderer. He killed more US citizens
from California to Florida than the infamous
Metro DC sniper team. Many times he was
caught for vagrancy or petty crimes; sometimes
he was detained by INS and then deported. But
he kept crossing the border and committing these
murders because the proceeds made for easy
living. He is now serving multiple life
sentences in Arizona (or on death row in Texas).
Might just as well have been a terrorist.
BTW: Most USA jurisdictions do not either keep,
or publically reveal, the number or percentage
of violent crimes committed by illegal aliens.
I think that if they did, more people would be
in an uproar over the government and employers
pandering to this country's illegal "guests".
I do know that NY State just revoked the CDLs
(Commercial Driver Licenses) of more than 6,000
commercial drivers because they were illegal
aliens. Those must be the ice cream truck
drivers that you were alluding to, right?
Of the 15 9-11-2001 hijackers, most either
traveled to the USA on false documents, or else
overstayed their tourist visas, some for years.
By your definition of statistical relevance,
the heinous terrorist incidents of 9-11-2001
don't matter -- instead the DoJ should be
focusing all their attention on drunk drivers.
I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing repeat DUI
drivers stood up against a wall and shot.