Slashdot Mirror
Cruising Fisherman's Wharf For New Passports' Serial Numbers
schwit1 writes "Fox News has an AP story on a hacker in San Francisco driving around and needing as little as 20 minutes to be successful in acquiring a passport number: 'Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic US passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet. ... Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy warned that radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow "widespread surveillance of individuals" without their knowledge or consent.'"
It's strange that politicians and other managers seem to have a totally different idea of the meaning of the word 'security' than other people.
-- Cheers!
And safety is really easy to come by in a hotel in Somalia.
Or you could, you know, stick the thing in the microwave for ten seconds. Enough to zap the chip, not enough to toast the paperwork.
Good luck trying to cross the border with your "forged" passport.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
[sarcasm]Yes, heaven forbid the United States catch up with the rest of the developed world and get a system that works better while costing less.[/sarcasm] Passport security and health systems have nothing to do with each other, please let you brain do the thinking, not your mouth or your gut.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
No, people shouldn't have to pay $20 for a way to make this technology safer. The government should improve their own shielding, and use more secure protocols for RFID transmission.
Were you kidding?
If US passport data can be easily acquired in San Francisco (where US citizens generally don't carry them), then it follows that said data will be abundant in areas where people are likely to carry passports. Somalia was just an example. Replace it with your favorite vacation getaway spot, if you like.
blackraven's comment is +5 insightful IMO.
Well I am completely against the apparent weak encryption and their lack of shielding but I think the big brother concerns are a little overblown. I don't think this is part of some massive systems to track us. Unless the U.S. is setting up this massive trackng network on cruise ships and all over foreign countries... I don't think it will suck in much.. unless of course they enjoy getting receiving data from my passport that always reports that I am 1) at home or 2) on my way to the airport. Seriously.. what U.S. citizen carries their passport everywhere they go domestically?
Yes, but the people in charge still haven't listened!
Yeah, and I'm less concerned about passports being counterfeited than I am about people carrying US passports in other countries being targeted for mugging. Those passports are valuable, you know.
Well, if it's like in Québec, we still have to pay for college. It's very subsidized, so we pay a little less than 2k$ a year. The loans are there so you can concentrate on your studies instead of working full time. Most people will work part time though.
And we can choose our health care. The only difference is that the doctors are paid by the state instead of by me. Only my doctor can make health care decisions, not a faceless bureaucrat or a CS rep from an HMO. And because there's no administrative overhead(about 1% instead of 30% in the USA) it's less expensive.
But I won't lie to you, if you have the sniffles and go to an emergency room, you're gonna wait a long time. You should go to a clinic(free also) for these minor conditions.
English second language here, so don't mind the grammar/spelling....
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID because its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy warned that radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow "widespread surveillance of individuals" without their knowledge or consent.
Fixed.
We live in a country who's military funded by the federal government "protects" other countries.
If my house is on fire, the fire is managed by a fire department funded by my municipal government
Law enforcement is provided by a police or sheriff's department funded by my city or county government
I drive to work on roads whose maintenance are funded by my county or state government
I was educated at public schools funded by my county and state government
Fixed that for you.
It says it grabbed the "Serial number" - not all the passport information.
Is the serial number even the same thing as the passport number, or is it just the serial number of the RFID chip?
Is that even necessarily a passport? Could it be something else using similar RFID technology they picked up?
In at least some states (Massachusetts for one) out-of-state ID isn't accepted for alcohol purchases, but federal ID like a passport is.
Whenever I've run into that, I've pointed out that it is clearly unconstitutional (Article IV, Section 1; full faith and credit clause).
The joke among bouncers evidently is: the guy who shows up with a passport probably lost his license for too many DUIs.
Or prefers to present his passport because it doesn't get scanned (magstripe), and doesn't have your home address or even home state printed on it.
You've obviously never travelled to a dodgy African country - there is NO way that you trust anyone to hold your passport as it's your only way out when the shit hits the fan.
Plus, theft is rife even in the 'nicer' hotels in some of these shitholes.