back to article Defects in e-passports allow real-time tracking

Computer scientists in Britain have uncovered weaknesses in electronic passports issued by the US, UK, and some 50 other countries that allow attackers to trace the movements of individuals as they enter or exit buildings. The so-called traceability attack is the only exploit of an e-passport that allows attackers to remotely …

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      1. markp 1
        Big Brother

        why do you assume they aren't?

        Also, it's called solidarity. We all make the stand together, and those of us who may be influential in keeping us free in the future, and whose influence may depend on not having their whereabouts and business continually tracked (yay communist russia - so hard to make and distribute your anti-oppression samizdats when every decent typewriter, printing press and mode of rapid transport is very very tightly controlled) then get the opportunity to work their magic.

        The "bad" people get an easier ride too, or at least the stupid ones who haven't figured out workarounds or got bent contacts who can give them false RFID passports, but on the whole the corrupt ones have a better chance of getting into positions of power anyway. So I think it would more go the way of the (subjectively, mind) "good".

        1. david wilson

          @markp 1

          >>"We all make the stand together, and those of us who may be influential in keeping us free in the future, [...] then get the opportunity to work their magic."

          Well, if our future freedom relies on people who haven't got the wit to use a simple workaround, I guess we're already screwed.

          Also, if we got to the point where everyone was required to carry a unshielded RFID chip at all times *and* that was heavily enforced (like anyone passing a checkpoint without generating the appropriate signal being arrested), that would suggest that the people 'keeping us free in the future' would already have failed

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    get one of these

    http://www.difrwear.com/product-detail.php?pid=2

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    If only they could...

    Incorporate some kind of device into the passports to turn the RFID "On and Off", perhaps a cardboard slider with contacts on that the owner can move to complete the circuit. It could be slid to the "on" position when the passport is needed to be readable via RFID and slid to the "off" position when the passport does not need to be read.

    Such a device would allow the owner to switch between the on and off modes.

    This device could be called an "On and Off Switch"

    Remarkable!

    1. markp 1
      Stop

      Genius, but it misses a key point of the article

      The "rogue" readers could simply be placed *near* the legit ones - upto about half a metre, which isn't much, but it does give you some latitude in hiding it. So when you turn it on - or remove it from the faraday pouch - for the bored customs official to blip it against his security system's reader pad, the intruder can also piggyback on or even intercept that signal, and do more besides during the few seconds your passport is in range. That's all it needs...

      Secure documents with radio tranceivers in are just so prone to unintentional leakage of a type that was fairly easy to avoid just by keeping the cover closed, or the doc in a closed briefcase. Such a dumb idea. I wonder what Oyster (Cocaine, National Security Citizen Tracking Lunacy)-addled tool came up with it?

  3. David Benoit
    FAIL

    OR!

    "It could be slid to the "on" position when the passport is needed to be readable via RFID and slid to the "off" position when the passport does not need to be read."

    _OR_

    the passport could, I dunno, be slid through a device that reads the information from it directly. Oh wait, that's what we had/have!

  4. PETER FREDERIKS

    Defects in e-passports

    "...unless the holder shields the government-mandated identity document in a special pouch." Will this also work when walking oout of a store with stolen merchandise protected with RFID?

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