Companies Start Implanting Microchips Into Workers' Bodies (latimes.com)

A Swedish start-up called Epicenter is offering to implant its employees and start-up members with microchips that function as swipe cards, allowing them to open doors, operate equipment or buy food and drinks with a wave of the hand. While these microchips have been available for decades, the technology has never been implanted in humans on such a broad scale. "Epicenter and a handful of other companies are the first to make chip implants broadly available," reports Associated Press. From the report: [A]s with most new technologies, it raises security and privacy issues. Although the chips are biologically safe, the data they generate can show how often employees come to work or what they buy. Unlike company swipe cards or smartphones, which can generate the same data, people cannot easily separate themselves from the chips. Epicenter, which is home to more than 100 companies and roughly 2,000 workers, began implanting workers in January 2015. Now, about 150 workers have the chips. A company based in Belgium also offers its employees such implants, and there are isolated cases around the world in which tech enthusiasts have tried them out in recent years. The small implants use near-field communication technology, or NFC, the same as in contactless credit cards or mobile payments. When activated by a reader a few inches away, a small amount of data flows between the two devices via electromagnetic waves. The implants are "passive," meaning they contain information that other devices can read, but cannot read information themselves. Ben Libberton, a microbiologist at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute, says hackers could conceivably gain huge swaths of information from embedded microchips. The ethical dilemmas will become bigger the more sophisticated the microchips become. Epicenter workers stage monthly events where attendees can receive the implant.

Comments

Re:This is unnecessary and stupid

[InvalidsYnc]

I think the point is more of that it cannot be separated from the person. You have to steal a body part to impersonate them, vs just snagging the band/ring/etc.

Not that I condone it, just speaking to one of the reasons why something that cannot be easily separated from someone would have an advantage.

Re:This is unnecessary and stupid

[meta-monkey]

So, if you work in a secure facility that someone really wants into... this ensures the bad guys always know where the keys are and how to get them, and you're not going to like it when they do.

Note to self: do not implant secure access microchip in dick.

Re:This is unnecessary and stupid

[ctilsie242]

This just oozes stupid. To boot, we already had a company (VeriChip) already try this over a decade ago, to at best a ho-hum audience. Here is why this sucks:

1: The chip can't really be updated. If there is a security break, the insecure chip is there forever.
2: Someone can be looking for the company employees to target them.
3: With how employees are hired/fired, having an armful of chips will suck over time.
4: I read about bad reactions to these in animals.
5: This is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. Nobody glues a mechanical key to their body for a reason.

If a company wants to ensure individuals can get in without an ID card, go with biometrics and a PIN, the biometrics being a "username", the PIN being the password. If a company wants higher security than a badge, have a badge + PIN, badge + biometrics, or all three. That will work for 99.99% of all security needs.

Re:Clone RFID

[fisted]

RFID chips can be made as impossible to clone as smart cards.
No, gaining access to the smart card contact pads won't help you in any way, neither will MITMing it.

IOW you're full of shit.

Been available for dogs & cats for years

[klubar]

This technology has been available for dogs & cats for years. Most dogs and outdoor cats are "microchipped" so the local ACO (animal control officer) or shelter can identify the owner. I've even seen it used with fish and other marine animals at the aquarium.

Not a new technology, and well proven.

Whether it's a good idea is another question.

Re:This is unnecessary and stupid

[Swave An deBwoner]

This bullshit is so old. Here's Robyn Curnow's article on having a microchip removed after getting it implanted to obtain "VIP" access at a bar around 13 years ago:

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/10/05/spark.bajabeach

Once back home in London, I begin to feel uncomfortable and unsure about my VIP status.

The Baja Web site assures that getting rid of the microchip is a simple and harmless procedure, something like removing a splinter.

But the two doctors I consult in London's Harley Street disagree. Getting the microchip became serious business.

Hard to find

General practitioner Dr. Stuart Sanders referred me to consultant plastic surgeon Lena Andersson as soon as he realized he could not feel the microchip.

It was buried so deep inside my upper arm that Andersson sent me off for an X-ray, and even that did not help the doctors.

Although the microchip was visible on the X-ray, it was impossible to pinpoint the exact location in my arm as it was nowhere near the point of insertion.

Finding it involved surgery at the clinic and a severe dose of post-Baja regret. One night out in Barcelona has permanently seared into my upper left arm.

While splayed out on an operating table -- once again anaesthetized -- Andersson removed the chip using a high-tech sensor X-ray and two monitors to guide her to it.

The missing microchip was finally located -- more than a centimeter away from where it was inserted.

Andersson later explained that it was so difficult to remove because it was so small and soft.

"It is very soft. I understand why we had a problem finding it. You couldn't feel it and I couldn't feel it. The smaller they are, the more difficult they are to get out."

So, now I have a small microchip the size of a large piece of Basmati rice in a specimen jar as a souvenir -- I also have eight-millimeter scar on my upper left arm.