dunno what you've been smoking, but I suppose its not too late to point out that RFID chips are useless to tarck a lost elephant, much less a lost or stolen passport.
There's really no earthly reason for using RFID chips in passports. RFID has a number of legitimate uses - and the use of this technology in those applications makes life easier for many. Nearly all legitimate applications of RFID benefit from the automation of collecting small bits of data from large numbers of entities using non-human readers.
However, all of the legitimate uses of the passport involve a human being handling the passport anyway - and using a non-RFID smart chip will suffice.
Tinfoil hats aside, the primary response of the RFID proponents to the question of why RFID tags are needed is "Why not?". This is a preposterous approach to implementing a system that handles sensitive personal data that could cause severe distress to the owners of that data, if compromised. Sensitive data belonging to thousands or even millions of people! Assuming the government still considers an individual as the rightful owner of their own personal data.
Some of the conspiracy theories regarding RFID in passports are a little over the top. But there is no denying the fact that the potential for abuse is definitely enhanced by using this technology in this way. Today the scope is for Americans to be targeted using this - either by their own government, or by criminals, or by other governments, or by terrorists. Tomorrow, when more countries follow suit, that scope expands, giving birth to a rich and varied mix of uses - all of which with the legitimate exception of border control are extra-legal or downright criminal. I hate to sound like a troll but the RFID chip in your little blue book could well become the new star of david sewn into your shirt.
136 posts and nobody even touched on whether the trembly users are being discriminated against by mouse vendors. Admittedly, IBM has done a Good Thing (tm) by coming out with this solution, but you'd expect a halfway decent mouse-maker with a conscience to offer it FREE with his mouse. Or at least a hell of a lot cheaper than a hundred bucks! For crying out loud - a Hundred bucks? Thats 25% of the cost of a decent desktop! BAH!
I probably fit the typical psych profile for middle-aged scientists on/. - curmudgeonly nit-picker in general, and an obssessively disparaging critic of the "for dummies" explanation in the science and technology, but this post has me marvelling at it's lucid simplicity. I wish more comments on slashdot were of this quality. Hell, I wish I could write like this.
Not surprising that McAfee has done this - all of the companies in the security space are scrambling to patent their IP in the hope of gaining a competitive advantage and/or additional revenue streams from technology licensing. Of course, many of these cannot be enforced - prior art exists for most of the technology either in a ademic publications or in some cases in fiction and in the movies!
Another example is the signature based dynamic NIDS patent that Symantec acquired through an acquisition. This is the exact same technology that is used by all of the network IDS systems today, with minor variations. It is reasonably obvious - separation of signatures into a data file instead of embedding them into the code. The generic concept of data-driven processing itself will probably provide prior art.
As more and more companies seek to cash in on the bonanza driven by increasing security paranoia, this trend is unlikely to wane in the near future.
Now, thats a half-way decent troll ; luckily I pretty much know the Friends seasons backwards and couln't think of a single instance involving Chandler and Information retrieval.
The Chandler PIM is named after one of the all-time great detective novelists - Raymond Chandler. Check out the OSAF site .
OK - it is a bit funny, but surely an unnecessary jibe, nein?
Sad to think that the enduring stereotype in the parent posters mind is that of Germans as the war-mongers of history (with all of its swastika associations)...
Thats an interesting approach - pour something over it! Note to self: Try it when you are up the creek without a cipherkey. Which raises the question - pour what? Melted chocolate? Hot wax? Fondue cheese? Warm Gatorade? Or worse!?
Probably simpler for Google to change the name of its service to "Google Geek". A good way to avoid a prolonged legal confrontation and potential settlement costs.
And the oh! so desirable side-effect of going a long way towards mainstreaming geekdom - maybe more slashdot readers will get lucky then.
Very Helpfully(tm), the executive summary says "September 11, 2001, changed the life of each and every American..." as the first sentence in the report. As if we needed to be reminded yet again.
Just in case the reader forgot this fact while reading the rest of the exec summary, the next chapter, the Introduction, starts with "On a fateful day in September 2001, our lives changed forever as a handful of terrorists proved they had the means to destroy on a level equal to their hatred.".
Having grabbed the readers attention, the rest of the report goes on to do the following
a. Narrate an administrative history of the establishment of DHS and the cybersecurity divisions within it
b. Provide volkswagen loads of justification for the existence of said departments - based on various criteria, all liberally illustrated with suitably scary numbers
c. Lay the groundwork for greater control and monitoring by the departments, of all computing and telecommunication resources in the country, regardless of who owns/operates them.
d. Attempts a definition of cybersecurity - which is a good thing.
e. Provides more volksvagens full of information designed to prove that legislative and administrative machinery are acting diligently and responsibly along the road to better security. This also absolves the departments themselves from any potential blame in the event of a screw-up - "all our bases are covered"
f. Throws in some pseudo-wise statements about educating mom-n-pop about how to protect their store computers and generously mentions that it will fund education in related matters. Remains to be seen if they will just restructure existing funding, reallocate under a new head and claim a job well done there.
Not at all the level of analysis, detail or accountability information you'd expect. Of course, John Q.Public is told that his representatives are in the loop, so don't worry, sleep tight. Its almost as if the report was specifically designed to NOT reveal any information. We'd rather not tell you any more, thank you, cuz you and your neighbors might all be security risks.
All banks in Sweden have had two factor authentication for a long time now. When you get online access to your account, you are given a physical device that generates passwords (using a secret key and the current time and some nonce inputs). A login attempt must provide
a. Login ID (usually the SSN)
b. A device computed response to a challenge. The challenge is usually in the form of TWO 4-digit nonce numbers that must be input into the password generator.
No "remembered" password is needed to be supplied in this scheme. The password generator has a PIN for security, locks out forever after three succesive wrong attempts to unlock the device. Of course if someone stole your device and forced you to reveal the PIN for it by pulling out your fingernails - you ahve bigger problems than securing your account anyway.
I work in network security (no- I am not a network admin)for a living, and I have to say this is by far the most phish resistant online banking auth scheme I have come across.
A-ha! All these years I was wondering where Lucas got the idea for a spherical deathstar design with a concave depression - and now I know - thank you, thank you, thank you, dear AC - NOT!
Presumptious that is! Next month may a better card be released. Bringing better technology every day is. But article does some wisdom contain - error it is till last minute to wait !!
nope - he doesn't - poor kid thinks it has to do with seeing faraway things close-up magnified by a system of lenses. could be a shortcoming of the public school system, but sounds like a good education wouldn't help either if his brains keep leaking out through his mouth...
And more importantly - will my stupendously Total Recall memory of the vacation be rudely disturbed by strange freaky humanoid maritian colonisers trying to kill me in the subterranean hum of the power plant?
Slashdot Mirror
The other 2 agencies being??
Brrrr....someone just walked over my grave with hobnailed boots....
Is this better? :)
2. Turn on microwave (high power, high power, high power, altho any setting will do), Wait 2 minutes, turn off, remove, Cool on wire rack
3. Patent this RFID tag disarming process - If they really are allowing malfunctioning chips thru...
4. ...Profit!
dunno what you've been smoking, but I suppose its not too late to point out that RFID chips are useless to tarck a lost elephant, much less a lost or stolen passport.
However, all of the legitimate uses of the passport involve a human being handling the passport anyway - and using a non-RFID smart chip will suffice.
Tinfoil hats aside, the primary response of the RFID proponents to the question of why RFID tags are needed is "Why not?". This is a preposterous approach to implementing a system that handles sensitive personal data that could cause severe distress to the owners of that data, if compromised. Sensitive data belonging to thousands or even millions of people! Assuming the government still considers an individual as the rightful owner of their own personal data.
Some of the conspiracy theories regarding RFID in passports are a little over the top. But there is no denying the fact that the potential for abuse is definitely enhanced by using this technology in this way. Today the scope is for Americans to be targeted using this - either by their own government, or by criminals, or by other governments, or by terrorists. Tomorrow, when more countries follow suit, that scope expands, giving birth to a rich and varied mix of uses - all of which with the legitimate exception of border control are extra-legal or downright criminal. I hate to sound like a troll but the RFID chip in your little blue book could well become the new star of david sewn into your shirt.
- who or what is a Cho and why is it/he/she sucking splatter? WTF is splatter an euphemism for now? What's that you say...? Ewwwwwwwwww......
136 posts and nobody even touched on whether the trembly users are being discriminated against by mouse vendors. Admittedly, IBM has done a Good Thing (tm) by coming out with this solution, but you'd expect a halfway decent mouse-maker with a conscience to offer it FREE with his mouse. Or at least a hell of a lot cheaper than a hundred bucks! For crying out loud - a Hundred bucks? Thats 25% of the cost of a decent desktop! BAH!
I probably fit the typical psych profile for middle-aged scientists on /. - curmudgeonly nit-picker in general, and an obssessively disparaging critic of the "for dummies" explanation in the science and technology, but this post has me marvelling at it's lucid simplicity. I wish more comments on slashdot were of this quality. Hell, I wish I could write like this.
Another example is the signature based dynamic NIDS patent that Symantec acquired through an acquisition. This is the exact same technology that is used by all of the network IDS systems today, with minor variations. It is reasonably obvious - separation of signatures into a data file instead of embedding them into the code. The generic concept of data-driven processing itself will probably provide prior art.
As more and more companies seek to cash in on the bonanza driven by increasing security paranoia, this trend is unlikely to wane in the near future.
Sick bastards - I now have to gouge out my minds eye - never will Jacksons movies be the same for me again!
The Chandler PIM is named after one of the all-time great detective novelists - Raymond Chandler. Check out the OSAF site .
Sad to think that the enduring stereotype in the parent posters mind is that of Germans as the war-mongers of history (with all of its swastika associations)...
(quietly goes back to searching for britney spears and george bush on google)
Jesus Christ man - hot stuff and all that rot - but you ought to give blokes a headsup about non-work-safe links!
Thats an interesting approach - pour something over it! Note to self: Try it when you are up the creek without a cipherkey. Which raises the question - pour what? Melted chocolate? Hot wax? Fondue cheese? Warm Gatorade? Or worse!?
And the oh! so desirable side-effect of going a long way towards mainstreaming geekdom - maybe more slashdot readers will get lucky then.
Get in touch with your inner geek.
Just in case the reader forgot this fact while reading the rest of the exec summary, the next chapter, the Introduction, starts with "On a fateful day in September 2001, our lives changed forever as a handful of terrorists proved they had the means to destroy on a level equal to their hatred.".
Having grabbed the readers attention, the rest of the report goes on to do the following
a. Narrate an administrative history of the establishment of DHS and the cybersecurity divisions within it
b. Provide volkswagen loads of justification for the existence of said departments - based on various criteria, all liberally illustrated with suitably scary numbers
c. Lay the groundwork for greater control and monitoring by the departments, of all computing and telecommunication resources in the country, regardless of who owns/operates them.
d. Attempts a definition of cybersecurity - which is a good thing.
e. Provides more volksvagens full of information designed to prove that legislative and administrative machinery are acting diligently and responsibly along the road to better security. This also absolves the departments themselves from any potential blame in the event of a screw-up - "all our bases are covered"
f. Throws in some pseudo-wise statements about educating mom-n-pop about how to protect their store computers and generously mentions that it will fund education in related matters. Remains to be seen if they will just restructure existing funding, reallocate under a new head and claim a job well done there.
Not at all the level of analysis, detail or accountability information you'd expect. Of course, John Q.Public is told that his representatives are in the loop, so don't worry, sleep tight. Its almost as if the report was specifically designed to NOT reveal any information. We'd rather not tell you any more, thank you, cuz you and your neighbors might all be security risks.
a. Login ID (usually the SSN)
b. A device computed response to a challenge. The challenge is usually in the form of TWO 4-digit nonce numbers that must be input into the password generator.
No "remembered" password is needed to be supplied in this scheme. The password generator has a PIN for security, locks out forever after three succesive wrong attempts to unlock the device. Of course if someone stole your device and forced you to reveal the PIN for it by pulling out your fingernails - you ahve bigger problems than securing your account anyway.
I work in network security (no- I am not a network admin)for a living, and I have to say this is by far the most phish resistant online banking auth scheme I have come across.
A-ha! All these years I was wondering where Lucas got the idea for a spherical deathstar design with a concave depression - and now I know - thank you, thank you, thank you, dear AC - NOT!
If you really want that tinfoil hat to come in useful, big brother will probably oblige by printing RFID tags, using the new epson technology, on every single copy of Catcher in the Rye henceforth.
This is informative? Sheesh - you guys are taking all the fun out of the parents patent troll.
Presumptious that is! Next month may a better card be released. Bringing better technology every day is. But article does some wisdom contain - error it is till last minute to wait !!
nope - he doesn't - poor kid thinks it has to do with seeing faraway things close-up magnified by a system of lenses.
could be a shortcoming of the public school system, but sounds like a good education wouldn't help either if his brains keep leaking out through his mouth...
And more importantly - will my stupendously Total Recall memory of the vacation be rudely disturbed by strange freaky humanoid maritian colonisers trying to kill me in the subterranean hum of the power plant?