Chipped Passport Cloned In Minutes 326
Posted
by
samzenpus
from the unsafe-at-any-customs-counter dept.
from the unsafe-at-any-customs-counter dept.
Death Metal Maniac writes "New microchip passports designed to be foolproof against identity theft failed the test when a researcher was able to manipulate one in minutes. The cloned passports were accepted as genuine by the computer software recommended for use at international airports. According to the article: 'A computer researcher cloned the chips on two British passports and implanted digital images of Osama bin Laden and a suicide bomber. The altered chips were then passed as genuine by passport reader software used by the UN agency that sets standards for e-passports.'"
I want one! (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, and I'd like some fake passports.
Re:Um, well... (Score:5, Funny)
Well, they didn't make him take his shoes off - so no, I am not surprised.
Why be a hacker... (Score:5, Funny)
Don't worry... (Score:5, Funny)
That's security professional for you, mister! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm head of retail logistics, so I have to get back to stocking shelves now.
Authentication requires ... um... authentication (Score:5, Funny)
Their outright failure to do so for at least a year for the UK and perhaps many more for other countries means that the digital information is less valid than the information imprinted on the card. Less valid because it's far easier to change, and shows no signs of alteration.
In other words, countries that don't authenticate, and rely on the digital information alone are *MORE* insecure and open to falsification than those who do authenticate.
Security: Not a tradeoff of civil liberties, but an intelligent application of a variety of techniques.
Authentication: When available USE IT, don't just put it off and trust easily-modifiable data. When in doubt look at the printed picture and the text. *THAT* is harder to change without showing signs of alternation.
Encryption: I guess if they can't get the key database working for simple authentication (or even a #$&*(#$ hash) they're not going to figure out the encryption stuff either.
Hi Bruce.
Ehud
Re:Why be a hacker... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yesterday's News Today! (Score:5, Funny)
Hey now! This is Slashdot. Taco and Neal and the gang were busy confirming every aspect of the story before they posted it to the front page.
Watch what you're doing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why be a hacker... (Score:3, Funny)
Red Herring... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yesterday's News Today! (Score:5, Funny)
Don't forget the painstaking grammar and spelling checking.
Plus they had to go through all the archives to make sure it wasn't a dupe.
Re:Red Herring... (Score:5, Funny)
Who needs passports to get into a country anyway?
Jose? Is that you?
Re:Um, well... (Score:5, Funny)
-1, Unintelligible.
Re:Um, well... (Score:5, Funny)
Or
+1, Ready for Academic Publication.
Maybe so. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Um, well... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yesterday's News Today! (Score:3, Funny)
If only someone would invent a device capable of automating those tasks.
Re:I want one! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"Can't find ass with both hands" comes to mind. (Score:3, Funny)
Sorry, we're just well conditioned into the response. "Oh, government fucked up? Must be ours..."
Spartacus Bin Laden (Score:5, Funny)
So now we can look forward to seeing thousands of people all sporting Osama Bin Laden pictures on their passports. It'll be as fashionable as Che Guevara t-shirts.
The TSA will love it because they can announce that they've caught Bin Laden every day for the next 20 years, thus justifying their continued existence.
Re:Take a hammer to it... (Score:2, Funny)
Given up hope? It is so bad that I have given up apathy!
Re:Um, well... (Score:3, Funny)
How about the government leaves us alone and sees to its actual responsibilities and, oh i don't know, obeys its own laws and attempts to embody American ideals?
With a username like that, of course that's what you would say. Not fooled!
Re:Misleading info? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Um, well... (Score:5, Funny)
What the hell is this, Schrödinger's Mod Point?