Passport Chip Sets Security Concerns

By STACY A. ANDERSON
August 9, 2006; Page D11

A new kind of U.S. passport with an embedded chip containing personal data will be issued starting Monday, amid some concerns about privacy and its vulnerability to hacking.

The State Department says it has chosen the chip technology in the so-called e-passports as part of an effort to better secure U.S. borders by making passports harder to forge. Congress also passed an act requiring countries in the U.S. visa-waiver program to issue passports with such chips by October.

The technology is designed to make it easier for customs officers to verify travelers' identities. Travelers will simply present their e-passports to customs officials the old-fashioned way. Officials will open the passport and scan the characters on the bottom of the personal-data page. The border official then verifies the personal information from the chip that is encrypted and transferred to the screen of a special e-passport reader machine.

Privacy advocates charge that the technology hasn't been sufficiently tested, and some experts have recently found ways to pull data off the radio-frequency-identification, or RFID, chips in e-passports in other countries. But other technology-security experts say such fears are overstated, saying that the perception of e-passports as being unsafe comes from confusing RFID tags with contactless technology, such as that used on some ATM and credit cards. The retail industry uses RFID to track merchandise, crates and pallets. Contactless technology can calculate and store new information that is often encrypted for security purposes.

E-passports will first be issued at the Colorado Passport Agency next week and are scheduled to be rolled out to other U.S. passport agencies in the following months. Existing passport holders may keep their travel documents until the expiration date. All new passports will contain the chip, according to the State Department, and the e-passport will eventually become the national standard.

Although it looks similar to earlier passports, retaining the traditional navy cover with an eagle etched in gold, the e-passport is slightly thicker and displays the international e-passport icon: two bars with a circle in the middle. Inside the back cover is an RFID tag loaded with a traveler's name, nationality, sex, date and place of birth, and a digitized photograph. The e-passport also has a digital signature, an electronic "seal" within the chip that proves the e-passport is issued by the government.

The Department of Homeland Security has run trials at various airports, while State Department personnel have also tested the new passport. The State Department says it has addressed key privacy concerns by adding metal sheets to the document's cover. These metal fibers make the chip inactive and data unreadable when the passport is closed, the State Department says. The chip can only be read by a scanner within a three-to-four-inch distance, says Joerg Borchert of Infineon Technologies North America Corp., which supplies the State Department with chips.

For added security, the chip will also have an electronic-access-code system, known as the Basic Access Control, which will be automatically read by U.S. border officials' scanners. The system generates a key which opens the chip and makes reading personal information possible. If the chip in the electronic passport were to fail, border officials would revert to relying solely on the printed personal-data page within the passport.

Ha ha, so glad I already just got my Big Br0-free passport renewed for a good 10 years! :ninja:

The walls are closing in fast, people!

I'm sorry if I may offend someone, but this looks waaaaay tacky...
http://travel.state.gov/images/epassport.jpg

Eek, is that what the new ones look like?

Malaysian passports have been electronic-based for EVER. We have autogates where you stick your passport in a reader and verify your identity with a thumbprint scan, so I haven't had to talk to or even look at an immigration officer while coming/going for a long time.

Eek.. I have 6 or so years left on my current passport. Then I have to meet with aesthetic hell.

On top of that, the RFID chip thing has already been rendered useless.

Hackers Clone E-passports

I guess that can make things easier. As long as the chip isn't in my skin I am cool with it

FUCKING GARBAGE. I am so glad that i have 8 years left on my new one. Also that eagle and flag is some of the dumbest shit I have seen in a while...Eagles aren't majestic theyre disease ridden like most birds lol

Wow...sounds like some anger issues, Sleep...

Eagles just have better PR agents, my friend. Didn't Ben Franklin want our national bird to be the Turkey? Now, how would that go over...? :lol:

worldwidemike

I would rather the turkey would be the national bird. Then we could eat eagle on Thanksgiving. I love me some eagle and cranberry sauce.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(freespiritz @ Aug 9 2006, 10:49 AM) [snapback]134315[/snapback]</div>Keep talking like that and your going to give Voyd a heart attack.

SuDZ

As far as I know, if the chip happens to malfunction at any point and stop working, then you will not be required to renew your passport. So a few seconds in the microwave shall fix that!

Florencia...where did you find that image? I have not yet searched the issue, but since it doesn't have the Secretary of State's declaration and request of aid, I have a hard time believing it will be what the official passport says.

Mine says, in English, French, and Spanish...
The Secretary of State of the United States of America hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen|national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.
and I would think this is something they'd keep for future passports.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(omisan @ Aug 9 2006, 02:03 PM) [snapback]134341[/snapback]</div>
Our government can never get anything right? Bitches. Well I've got 9 years or so, so i'm happy.

I got it off from Google, the direct link is http://travel.state.gov/images/epassport.jpg, and that's the site of the US Department of State: http://travel.state.gov...

Seems legit to me. But then u could be right, I'm not sure-




Edited to add:

I just found this link... hehehe that passport is a bit too much.... I guess it could come in handy when you're bored at the airport... :lol:

New Passport design:
http://travel.state.gov/passport/eppt/epptnew_2807.html


PS: I can't believe now I know all this, and I'm not even a US citicen... jajaja

Oh good lord. Well, I have to renew mine in less than five years, so there's no hope for me.

So I just figured out that when I'm 21 I have to declare myself as either Brazilian or American.

Brazil's pretty nice this time of year...

Holy shit! I'm gonna look like Frank? No really is that the new passport I'll be getting dude the word "tacky" is not even close you were being nice that is yukky! Oh well so many colors Ohhhh Gay pride! Now it all makes sense. Frank is gay!

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(DJ_VeeeNoM @ Aug 10 2006, 09:24 AM) [snapback]134478[/snapback]</div>
Whatever, dude. Who give's a shit about the colors. If you're trying to coordinate your outfit to your passport, you've got far more serious issues.

I just find it way too bright I think the old one was a bit more formal. And who the hell would be matcin' with the passport?

I'm requesting a custom outer cover for mine. It's gonna be a gigantic flag with "THESE COLORS DON'T RUN" scrawled over it in 84pt type. America! Fuck yeah!

Comin' again to save the motherfucking day, yeah!


Yeah, I'm glad I have a passport issued in 2004. By 2014, hopefully they'll have removed the RFID chips and realized how friggin' pathetically tacky that design is. Good Googling Flo.