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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 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. My hat ain't enough by sls1j · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like I'll be getting a matching tin foil wallet to go with the hat.

  3. 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
  4. RFID Gathering by CaptCovert · · Score: 5, Informative

    What worries me about all of this is not that the RFIDs can be picked up while driving around. A little consumer education (you are supposed to worry about who you give your SSN to, and you don't just leave your other PII laying around in plain sight usually) in the form of RF-blocking wallet linings will fix that. What I'm worried about is what happens in 5 years, when advances in RF technology (it is the new form of governmental ID, after all. Technology WILL follow suit) allow for hardware that I can hide on my person (antenna down the back of a coat lining, wired to a recorder in my pocket, or hell, dropped in the lining somewhere). At that point, all it takes is one man sitting in a train station or airport. You pull your ID out for scanning, and I harvest it. You may as well walk around with your SSN printed on your shirt.