RFID-Reading Passport Scanners Installed

Kozar_The_Malignant writes, "Electronic passport scanners have been installed at SFO. Ten of the scanners were received last week and have now been put in service. Various creative responses have been discussed here before."

Faraday Cage Suit

I knew that farady cage suit would come in handy some day!!!
___________________________
Free iPods? Its legit [wired.com]. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here! [freepay.com]

Do passports already have RFID's in them?

Do they? I haven't exactly kept track of this...

Re:Do passports already have RFID's in them?

from the prev Slashdot article :

State Department spokeswoman Janelle Hironimus said existing passports will remain valid until they expire but, eventually, all U.S. passports -- about 13 million will be issued in 2006 -- will contain such chips

Re:Do passports already have RFID's in them?

My mate got a new British passport a couple of weeks ago. The 2nd last page or so has a chip and a large rectangular loop of wire shaped in it. From what I remember, the rectangular loop of wire measured about 8cm long by 2cm high or so.

Here's a smallish picture of what the RFID bit looks like: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2005/11/1 8/npassport18.jpg [telegraph.co.uk]

This is only an interim measure...

...until they can implant the RFID chips in your head.

can they be opened with a Diebold key or bar key?

anyone tried to open them their hotel mini-bar key?

Various Creative Responses

> New U.S. e-Passports contain a 64 kbit RFID chip with personal information about the passport holder.

After reading last night's [slashdot.org] thread, I suppose encoding ~250 copies of the string "Kip Hawley is an idiot. Michael Chertoff is also an idiot" into an off-the-shelf 64kbit chip, putting the chip in a small wad of gum, and then swallowing the gum, is no longer an option.

Well, so much for my weekend.

Range can be increased

There is a time-honored tradition of making RF signals go as far as possible. It's the first thing any kid tries with a walkie-talkie: how far can it go? It's possible to make RFID devices read from farther than designed by using higher power to energize the RFID and a higher-gain antenna to read its response. Certainly it will be practical to read these things as people walk through a door frame, with the proper equipment.

Bruce

Wrapping your passport in Tinfoil?

There is the ever present theory that wrapping something in tinfoil will prevent RFID communications from working. Does anyone know if this is true or has been tested? If it works, just wrap your passports in tinfoil.

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Why?

Are there any arguments in favor of RFID as opposed to chip-cards? I mean, conventional chip-cards that need physical contact with the reader would be safer in that the can not be wirelessly read and could contain processors to do crypto-calculations on card (since they have better power supply). The extra time it perhaps would take to read the card shouldn't be a bottleneck since airport checks are plenty slow as they are.

Passport Cases Now Become Important

I have a passport case and will be sure to line it with mu-metal (not just aluminum foil) when I get a new passport in a few years. I'm sure that similar things will be up for sale. Indeed, if there's a manufacturer out there who wants to work on this, and knows sewing better than technology, write to bruce at perens dot com.

Bruce

Re:Passport Cases Now Become Important

I guess this is something that not everybody understands yet. Of course you'd take the passport out of the case when there's a legitimate occassion to read it, like going through immigration security at some country (which I do a few times a month). The problem is that people can read it while it's in your pocket, with the right equipment, wherever you go, all the time, hundreds of times per day. And having it in a mu-metal case when you do not expect it to be read would be a good security practice. Is that more clear?

Thanks

Bruce

Re:Passport Cases Now Become Important

It already has a cover [state.gov]

Metallic anti-skimming material incorporated into the front cover and spine of the e-passport book prevents the chip from being skimmed, or read, when the book is fully closed;

shielded cases for 18 dollars

http://www.difrwear.com/products.shtml [difrwear.com]

looks like somebody's already selling them Bruce!

Moo

I wonder if all they read will be one's passport.

To the conspiracy wonks - entertain me

Oh, please do try and foil (pun intended) the RFID readers. Please. And bring a friend with a video camera so we can watch the resulting hilarity on YouTube.

TravelTags

This really isn't all that horribly different from the TollTags, EasyPasses, and basically every other scannable devices that identifies the device-holder. Your passport is the property of the government -- has been, and will continue to be. If they want to make it easier to check / scan / whatever, so be it. While I worry about the security of their online database, it's not really any less secure than it has been in the past. I say there's no real change taking place here, except maybe if not too many of the people in front of me in line have lined their passport holder with tin foil, rig their chips with some hate-message, and/or any other potentially disturbing thing, perhaps the line might move a little faster and I'll make my connecting flight once in awhile...

Fine by me

I have no problem with RFID in the passport, as long as it is implemented in an intelligent manner. I don't see it as any more of an invasion of privacy than the personal photo and address information, and also the log of my recent travels.

I plan on having an aluminum foil carrying case for my RFID passport, when I get one, so it can't be read without being opened. Recently I saw a link to a company that makes wallets with a metal foil already embedded in the leather, so RFID chips can't be scanned remotely. The also sell a foil insert that goes in the bill area. I acn't remember the name though -- I thought it was a wordplay with 'wallet' and 'magnet', perhaps the word 'envelope'?

The only thing I don't want is an RFID implant. You might wear a farraday armband, but the whole idea reminds me too much of Jews getting serial numbers tatooed shortly before they were shipped into the death camps.

My main issues:

- I wonder how long it will take to break the security? [it's going to happen]
- I wonder from what distances the RDIF card will be able to be read? [I hear a few inches to a few yards and beyond]
- I wonder what interesting ways people will use this information. [I'm in marketing and can already think of a few]

aluminum cases through security anyhow?

Has anyone actually tried to take an aluminum foil wrapped anything through airport security? I assume that would look suspicious to anyone, i.e. why the hell is it in foil, is it a bomb, etc. Did you get harassed at all? I actually just got a passport and am travelling far, far away, so I *could* try it...

Schneier says "rewew NOW"

For what it's worth, Bruce Schneier [schneier.com] is recommending that everyone renew their passports now so that you can avoid having a chipped one for another 10 years:

The security mechanisms on your passport chip have to last the lifetime of your passport. It is as ridiculous to think that passport security will remain secure for that long as it would be to think that you won't see another security update for Microsoft Windows in that time. Improvements in antenna technology will certainly increase the distance at which they can be read and might even allow unauthorized readers to penetrate the shielding.

As he says, "You don't want to be a guinea pig on this one."

He also says you can disable the chip by running the passport through the microwave, but "although the United States has said that a nonworking chip will not invalidate a passport, it is unclear if one with a deliberately damaged chip will be honored." My guess is that it would result in a long and painful trip to the customs interrogation area.

Fools

The U.S. completed a live test of the e-Passports in April 2006.

But they did not give the exact date. Maybe it is all a sad joke.

Microwave Ovens

Solve RFID tag issues.

But then again so do really large magnetic fields.

I have a big magnet just waiting for my new passport.

But then again, why are they doing it?
Are they just getting rid of mounds of paper?
or are they tracking you as you go around the world using black choppers?

--
I hear voices in my head. Oh wait, thats just me talking again...

Typical Response without knowing the facts

Come on slashdot-folks I expected better than all these comments about tin-foil hats.

It's bad enought that I have to put up with this any time I talk to any non-techie about the fact that I work for an RFID company and no I am not evil and do not wish to track their every move and alert someone that they are using the bathroom too much.

--Now for the Facts--

There are two main categories for RFID systems on the market today. These are near field systems that
employ **inductive coupling** of the transponder tag or Smart Label to the reactive energy circulating around the reader antenna, and far field systems that couple to the real power contained in free space propagating electromagnetic plane waves.

The passports are (repeat after me) *inductive* which means that they are activated by a magnetic field which is amplified by that metal loop you see to provide power to read the memory on the chip. The claims that someone could build a reader to read your tag from even 10 or 20 feet away is ridiculous. It would require the creation of such a big magnetic field that it would probably zap all magnetic material (such as hard drives, floppy discs, usb keys) that I am sure someone would notice. Also in order to read the reflection of the magnetic field which is what determines the response (RFID works like an echo you yell at something and wait for the echo to figure out what the id is) you would need such a big receiver (note this is still for 10 - 20 feet only) that you would literally look like someone out of the verizon commercial.

I know us techies are generally oblivious to the outside world but I think if you saw someone like this within 10 feet you should generally notice. Also you should run because that magnetic energy will probably fry your nads among with other crucial body parts you may never use (sorry couldn't resist).

The only real danger is that some hot woman with an rfid reader decides to bump into you and just happen to place her hand where your passport is. If you foresee that happening a lot then I suggest you get a tin-foil cover. However if that happens to you a lot then you are probably not on slashdot and reading this anyways.

Sorry but I am a little sick and tired of hearing about all these security concerns by people who don't know how these systems actually work. Can you tell?

Renew Now

I sent in my passport in for renewal about a month ago since it expires next year and it came back without RFID. I suspect if you send in a renewal the next 2 weeks to the National Passport Center, you'll get a new one sans-RFID. I now have 10 years before I have to worry about passport RFID and tin foil hats for my passport. Hopefully by the next time I have to renew, the State Department will have realized their stupidity and gone to contact chip rather than RFID.

13 million seems awfully high

U.S. passports -- about 13 million will be issued in 2006

Is this really correct? That would mean that over the course of a decade, roughly 130 million passports are issued? So there are 100-something million active passports... 1 in 3 americans (of all ages). That seems high.

it's election time...bug your candidate!

How about this as a creative solution--bother your incumbent congressman or congressional candidate, ask them if they support unjustifiable technology that can prove to be a risk to US citizens abroad.

I'm telling both the guys running for my district (which, fortunately, is a competitive one) that I'll vote for the guy who votes to repeal the REAL ID Act and, at the very least, makes the RFID chip optional in new passports.

E-passport images

Check out the over-the-top patriotic imagery in the new "e-passports"

http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/eppt_2501.ht ml [state.gov]

Is this some kind of reverse psychology?

only a matter of time ...

While implementing RFID does add a layer of forgery protection, it is only a matter of time until someone finds a way to exploit the security features. Currently, if someone forges a passport, they only need to incorporate their picture into it. Once cracked, a forged or hacked RFID chip can simply be incorporated into a forged passport.

Although I'm not too keen about passports containing RFID chips, I'm pleasantly surprised that the gov't actually considered public feedback and did a decent job of implementing security features. The problem, however, is that people tend to become overly confident and reliant in such technology. Image the possibilities if (when) the ability to alter the RFID chip is realized. One scenario that's not often considered is one in which a hacker could cause an unsuspecting victim to be scrutinized by authorities by modifying the RFID data to differ from the printed info. Although this example may not be as dangerous as those involving forgery, it sure could provide an advantage to an unscrupulous business competitor.

The State Dept. has only confirmed that one [state.gov] the 13 or 14 passport agencies, the Colorado Passport Agency, is issuing passports with RFID chips. This agency began issuing them on Aug 14, and since all agencies are expected to be issuing them this year, there may be more agencies doing so.

Is that Tin Foil on your passport or

are you happy to see me?

change

SOOO changeable.. Proven is hacking conventions

Where to buy/how to make an RFID reader? (writer?)

How does one get a hold of an RFID reader? Are there writable RFID's? Like can I create my own RFID's and put them on things in my house (with my own numbering system, I'm not sure it would be a privacy issue (?)), so I can constantly find things like my keys, the remotes...etc...?

I'd like to know when something has an RFID in it as well...I bought a pair of leather work gloves at Home Despot the other day. There was no obvious tag -- but she deactivated them anyway and they beeped. I find out later there is a tag sewn into the leather label that is stitched into the glove. Not so easy to remove without a seam ripper.

I like to regularly remove store tags when I get things home, but some of them are getting harder to find. Of real annoyance is my local Longs (a high-priced, "5 & 10" -- that's 5 and 10 Euros, not US cents, as the dollar is deflating in value ~ 7-9% / year since Bush took office). They stick the RFID's on the written labels of medical instructions on over-the-counter medicines, hiding text, and ripping off large parts of the label when removed. But even a small box of No-Doz gets a tag these days with No-Doz rising to $.15/tab in the cheapest size. Inflation, biting into my caffiene in a serious way -- they only used to be ~.10/tab a few years back. Ouch!

Re:South Park quote

In other words, it serves San Francisco right for being so smug?