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Employees In Swedish Office Complex Volunteer For RFID Implants For Access
Lucas123 writes A Swedish office building is enabling corporate tenants to implant RFID chips into employee's hands in order to gain access through security doors and use services such as photocopiers. The employees working at Epicenter, a 15,000-square-foot building in Stockholm, can even pay for lunch with a swipe of their hand. Hannes Sjöblad, founder of Bionyfiken, a Swedish association of Biohackers, said Epicenter is not alone in a movement to experiment with uses for implanted chips that use RFID/NFC technology. There are also several other offices, companies, gyms and education institutions in Stockholm where people access the facilities with implanted chips. Bionyfiken just began a nationwide study using volunteers implanted with RFID/NFC. "It's a small, but indeed fast-growing, fraction which has chosen to try it out." The goal of the Bionyfiken project is to create a user community of at least 100 people with RFID implants who experiment with and help develop possible uses. But, not everyone is convinced it's a good idea.
John Kindervag, a principal security and privacy analyst at Forrester Research, said RFID/NFC chip implants are simply "scary" and pose a major threat to privacy and security. The fact that the NFC can't be shielded like a fob or chip in a credit card can with a sleeve means it can be activated without the user's knowledge, and information can be accessed. "I think it's pretty scary that people would want to do that [implant chips]," Kindervag said.
John Kindervag, a principal security and privacy analyst at Forrester Research, said RFID/NFC chip implants are simply "scary" and pose a major threat to privacy and security. The fact that the NFC can't be shielded like a fob or chip in a credit card can with a sleeve means it can be activated without the user's knowledge, and information can be accessed. "I think it's pretty scary that people would want to do that [implant chips]," Kindervag said.
Look, if you want to be that stupid, as long as it only affects you, go right ahead. But don't bother anyone else with it, thanks. Yet there's the rub: Before you know it, it's become de rigeur and everyone is expected to follow, something I'll never do voluntarily. So force it is going to be. I object to that.
Isn't it like extremely easy to copy passive NFC/RFID tags? You just record them and replay them.
So in essence this adds nothing to security and only harms privacy. (But I guess that is pretty much the norm everywhere these days.)
Well, at least it might be a bit convenient since the people doesn't need to remember their keys.
Not that it should be an issue, they would probably rather be caught dead than forgetting their smartphone somewhere.
The NSA declined to comment although a muffled "W0000000t!!!!" could be heard in the background.
Requiem for the American Dream
I'm no RFID expert, but it's just used for identification, right? It won't be long until face scanning is good enough that you can identify someone from even further away than the range of an RFID chip. The potential for people cloning the chips seems worse than any sort of privacy/tracking worries.
They've been predicting this technology for decades, based on the 'mark of the beast' being necessary to buy anything
[The Beast] also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. (Rev 13:16,17)
I'd like to have the chip implanted in my dick. I have a tiny little mind, and am easily amused by puerile shenanigans . . . so whipping out my dick and waving it around to open doors and pay for stuff . . . priceless!
MasterCard, Visa and American Express, please take note of this post! This is the "Innovative Cloud of Internet of Things," that everyone is talking about!
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Our company uses a chip in our employee IDs. I get into our Stockholm office by turning around and banging the scanner with my ass--it's just the right height to read the card in my wallet just fine that way. The fact that the corporate logo is pasted across the front of the card scanner just makes it all the more heartwarming.
We use a separate fob for the outside door (we share the building with several other firms). That works just fine, too, and people seldom if ever come to the office without their house and/or car keys.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
I get into our Stockholm office by turning around and banging the scanner with my ass
TWERK TO ENTER WORK
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"