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Hacker Shows How To Fabricate Death Records

Posted by Soulskill on from the making-you-dead dept.

wiredmikey writes: Hackers the Def Con gathering in Las Vegas on Friday got schooled in how to be online "killers." A rush to go digital with the process of registering deaths has made it simple for maliciously minded folks to have someone who is alive declared dead by the authorities. The process of having someone officially stamped dead by getting a death certificate issued typically involves a doctor filling out one form and a funeral home filling out another, according to Rock's research. Once forms are submitted online, certificates declaring the listed person legally dead are generated. A fatal flaw in the system is that people can easily pose as real doctors and funeral directors.

2 of 46 comments (clear)

  1. Easy exploit here by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

    He also showed how to create birth certificates.

    There are a number of potential exploits here. One would be to create birth certificates for two fake children, get some credit cards, max them out buying the same stock (one shorting the stock, one long). Whichever makes money, you keep. The other one, you get a fake death certificate, then you don't have to pay.

    Of course, all this is fraud, and you can be arrested for it if you get caught.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Tamper with local and state folks first by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    While declaring presidential candidates dead would be fun to watch, declaring local and state candidates could be more disruptive. If a presidential
    candidate died, it would be on the news all over. A candidate for alderman somewhere, not so much.

    Extra virtual kids of course could appear as income tax deductions. You;d have to say they were home schooled...
    I don't see a way to decently defend against this apart from having a much better way to authenticate someone's identity.
    Who has to vouch for a birth though? Kid gets born in a bathroom somewhere (it does happen) and there is no physician
    around. How does someone like that ever get a birth certificate? Time was relatives could vouch for someone (was common
    in early 1900s). If all it takes is someone signing a piece of paper saying "this kid was born somewhere in the US on date
    xx-xxx-xxxx, witness Sam nocturnal aviator" how do you know? My birth certificate has attestations but many if not all of
    those folks are long dead and it's not as if there is any DNA in the paper to tie it to me.
    The whole system seems to be built on sand. Maybe quicksand.