More on RFIDs in passports

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Steve Chadima  <steve () energyinnovations com>
Sent: 14/4/'05,  9:29

Thought you might be interested in this latest chapter in the RFIDs-in-passports debate.   Regards,   Steve    
Steve Chadima
Chief Marketing Officer
Energy Innovations, Inc.
130 West Union Street
Pasadena, CA 91103
626-535-2784 voice
626-535-2701 fax
steve () energyinnovations com
www.energyinnovations.com



    Officials disagree over effectiveness of passport chip
By Sarah Lai Stirland, National Journal's Technology Daily

SEATTLE - A government official on Wednesday downplayed the privacy implications of a new wireless chip technology that 
soon will be embedded into American pass
ports, but a civil liberties advocate disagreed with his stance.

The State Department is installing chips that can be read wirelessly by machines when Americans pass through U.S. 
immigration. The chips contain the information
 that American passports currently display, such as name, identification number and photograph, enhanced by 
facial-recognition technology.

The new passports will be rolled out and tested by about August. State has said the new technology will enable 
immigration officials to authenticate a passport 
holder's identity and make the documents better resistant to tampering.

Frank Moss, State's deputy assistant secretary for passport services, said during a panel discussion that civil 
libertarians' have overblown their concern that 
fraudsters and terrorists having the ability to access that data remotely with their own chip scanners and then to 
commit crimes with that information. The chip
s can only be read by a machine that is at the most 10 centimeters away, he said.

"The idea that you can walk through a lobby of a hotel and that you can be scanned is poppycock," he said at the 
Computer, Freedom and Privacy conference.
Opponents of the wireless chips in passports have suggested that the technology could make Americans vulnerable to 
identity theft domestically, and Americans tr
aveling abroad could be walking targets for terrorists. They say that fraudsters and terrorists could purchase scanners 
to scan crowds to acquire the informatio
n contained in the chips.

Moss also pointed out that the chips do not contain some of the information that is central to the crime of identity 
theft, such as Social Security numbers and 
home addresses.

But after Moss' presentation, Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty 
program, demonstrated that a reader coul
d read his passport information from more than 10 centimeters away. He charged that the chips can be read from as far 
away as 30 feet.

Moss vigorously defended the administration's passport initiative and said that State would not roll out the new 
passports without incorporating a mechanism tha
t will prevent unauthorized access to the passport holders' personal information.

"I want to assure all of you [that] this passport will not be issued to the public before we address the problem of 
skimming," he said. "We take this problem ve
ry seriously."

Skimming refers to the practice of using scanners to gain unauthorized access to passport holders' data.

Moss said possible technical solutions include the incorporation of a metal cover on the front of the passport designed 
to prevent unauthorized scanners from re
ading the data.

This document is located at http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0405/041305tdpm2.htm




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