Researchers Find Problems With RFID Passport Cards

An anonymous reader writes "Researchers at the University of Washington have found that RFID tags used in two new types of border-crossing documents in the US are vulnerable to snooping and copying. The information in these tags could be copied on to another, off-the-shelf tag, which might be used to impersonate the legitimate holder of the card." You can also read the summary of the researchers' report.

Comments

Re:question to those who read the article

[NoisySplatter]

They still can't.

From the article:
"Although the tags don't contain personal information, they could be used to track a person's movements through ongoing surveillance..."

Considering the "passport" is the entire document and the tag itself contains no identifying information they still can't clone your passport at a distance. They could clone the tag inside it, but the process of faking your passport would still involve creating the paper hard copy. I'd say if they still have to do everything they used to and also something new then it's more secure, not less.

Of course the ability to recognize and track a person's movements through the use of RFID is still worrying, but it's no easier to fake a passport than it used to be.