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WarCloning, the New WarDriving?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the now-everyone-with-a-laptop-in-their-car-is-gonna-get-searched dept.

ChrisPaget writes "After my legal skirmishes with HID a while back, The Register has coverage of my latest RFID work — cloning Passport Cards and Electronic Drivers Licenses from a moving vehicle. Full details will be released at Shmoocon this weekend, but in the meantime there's video of the equipment and articles all over the place."

5 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. RFID on identification scares me by sempiterna · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm very much afraid of government implementing rfid on a widespread level. I have to admit that if I was government, I'd probably push to do the same thing.

    Having Big Brother being able to know who I am by walking into a door of the court house, or if a police officer pulls you over and 'scans your arm', really scares me.

    The potential for abuse is tremendous.

    1. Re:RFID on identification scares me by ushering05401 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who knows what your prospective employer etc would see in your file?

      Who knows if it would be true?

      Oh wait.. there could be some sort of efficient appeals process to get improper notations removed from your file just as easy as fixing your credit history after getting ID jacked...

      Boy, my grade school teachers didn't know how right they were when they threatened me with screwing up my 'permanent record.'

    2. Re:RFID on identification scares me by commodore64_love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Go to a concentration camp; they could have a name, phone numbers, next of kin, final will and testament, etc already on file. No more wasted paper or wasted time filling out the same info on different forms. Just send them straight to the "showers" for processing.

      Go to a job interview; they could have a genetic workup, list of potential diseases, previous health expenditures, current debt accumulation, etc already on file. No more hiring of people who are sickly & likely to aste company resources, or are deep in debt and potential thieves. They can be weeded out immediately.

      Point:

      Having information so easily available is dangerous. It's loss of power by the citizen & a gaining of power by the politicians and the corporations.

      --
      "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  2. Why? by EmbeddedJanitor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Right now the police can pull you over and ask for your license. Don't show it and you see the inside of a cell.

    And while you're driving around your car has license plates on it which can be scanned from far further than RFID.

    The potential for abuse is already there and has been for a long time.

    One cool thing with new tech is that it lifts the bar for the scammers. With RFID you need a lot more than a photocopier and laminator to make a fake drivers license.

    --
    Engineering is the art of compromise.
    1. Re:Why? by faloi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      With RFID you need a lot more than a photocopier and laminator to make a fake drivers license.

      Yeah, you also apparently need a couple of hundred bucks worth of stuff. And the added "advantage" to RFID is that most people will probably actually believe it's secure and take the scan at face value, making it easier than ever to pass off fake ID most places.

      --
      "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein