I’m not getting a signal, Captain…
Money.cnn.com has an article on the August, 2006 roll-out of RFID-’enhanced’ passports. I haven’t made it a secret that I believe RFID is definitely a not-ready-for-prime-time technology. It may be useful for the moment in preventing some casual shoplifting or in tracking merchandise in a warehouse, but I really don’t want to have my Social Security Number, birthdate, credit card number, and mother’s maiden name constantly broadcasting from a chip in my pocket.
“Basically, you’ve given everybody a little radio-frequency doodad that silently declares ‘Hey, I’m a foreigner,’” says author and futurist Bruce Sterling, who lectures on the future of RFID technology. “If nobody bothers to listen, great. If people figure out they can listen to passport IDs, there will be a lot of strange and inventive ways to exploit that for criminal purposes.”
RFID chips are used in security passes many companies issue to employees. They don’t have to be touched to a reader-machine, only waved near it. Following initial objections by security and privacy experts, the State Department added several security precautions.
I like the phrase ‘several security precautions.’ It conjures up images of Halliburton subcontracting to some guy named Bubba to cover the insides of passport covers with duct tape. ‘Hey, it takes more than one strip to do a single case – that’s several precautions right there.’ At least they aren’t claiming the chips are effective ‘because of all that there silly-cone stuff.’
And in your current-administration laff o’ the day, there’s this statement:
The State Department argues the concerns are overstated. “We wouldn’t be issuing the passports to ourselves if we didn’t think they’re secure,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services Frank Moss, who noted that RFID passports have already been issued to core State Department personnel, including himself. “We’re our own test population.”
Given the track record, we are now taking bets on what the false statement regarding worst-case scenarios will be.
- ‘Nobody predicted that someone would come up with a way to read an RFID chip just by walking by.’
- ‘Nobody predicted that someone would actually crack the encryption used by the government.’
- ‘Nobody predicted that an RFID-transmissable virus would be developed.’
- ‘Nobody predicted that the levees would break.’
Just for the record – all four have been predicted. Although that fourth one might have had to do with a different issue altogether. I’m not certain – the current administrations Intelligence Failures of Mass Destruction are getting so common that they’re starting to blend together. Anyway, not only have these situations been predicted, but a couple of them have even been demonstrated, including a virus that can be transmitted to a reader by an RFID chip and subsequently transmitted from the readers to other chips run by it.
I still find it amazing that at a time when security and identity theft are major concerns, this insecure technology is being rammed down our throats over the protests of, well, pretty much everybody. Yes, I find it amazing. Even though it is business as usual.