Fatal Flaw Weakens RFID Passports

fmwap writes "Wired news is reporting on new measures being taken to ensure RFID in US passports are not traceable. Encryption will be implemented via a key printed on the passport, which will be read by an optical scanner. The problem is the RFID serial number used for collisions will not be encrypted as is required for communication, thus still allowing tracking." We've previously reported on the decision to chip U.S. passports. From the article: "To its credit, the State Department listened to the criticism. As a result, RFID passports will now include a thin radio shield in their covers, protecting the chips when the passports are closed. Although some have derided this as a tinfoil hat for passports, the fact is the measure will prevent the documents from being snooped when closed." Update: 11/04 16:08 GMT by Z : Edited for accuracy.

Comments

sheesh...

[tuxette]

*sigh*

Remind me to go out and buy a tinfoil money belt the next time I go on a trip...

Why contactless?

[trigeek]

If the new passports are designed to be read by an optical scanner (to get the decryption key) before the RFID is read, why do they need to be contactless?

Seems to me, a contact-based smart card would be a safer, cheaper option. It would also avoid the need for the tinfoil hat.

Good...passports with protection

[bayankaran]

As a result, RFID passports will now include a thin radio shield in their covers...

OIOW (or in other words) passports with built in tinfoil hats.

Re:kidnapping travelling americans made easy

[njyoder]

I love how Slashdotters continually prove their complete lack of critical thinking skills. Your own example disproves your point. Currently, people are still capable of reading information off the computer screens at airports. After these new passports are issued, people will still be capable of doing the exact same thing. It is not made any easier.

If you're accusing the government of foul play, that's ridiculous, since the current system already allows them to track all the flights you take, since current passports HAVE ALL YOUR INFORMATION WRITTEN ON THEM.

Now that's the part you missed: CURRENT PASSPORTS HAVE ALL YOUR INFORMATION WRITTEN ON THEM IN PLAIN, HUMAN READABLE LANGUAGE. And yet, somehow these are going to increase the risks somehow? Whaaaaaa?

It amazes me what gets moderated as insightful, considering how a little critical thought here reveals that obvious statement. Government tracking is not actually made the slightest bit easier here. If you actually read critiques by security experts, none of credible ones are even using that as a point of criticism, their issue is criminals using the information ( and the financial costs of implementing the system), which is quelled by the fact that it can only be read a few centimeters away and is self-shielded.

Now the benefit of this technology, w hich you ignored, is that it makes passports much harder to forge. But I guess you want passports to be easy to forge, because you believe strongly in identity theft (maybe not, but I'm just exercising the same hyperbole you use).

In twenty years, a whole generation of the world's people will have grown up in a virtual prison, and won't even notice.

Only on Slashdot can a comment like this get moderated up to be insightful. This should be an instant sign that this guy is an idiot and should be moderated down to -1. Go ahead you paranoid, anti-american twits, moderate my comment flamebait, but I know you won't sleep well doing it--you will only mod me down to censor me (hypocritically at that), because you can't rationally address my arguments.