Government RFID busted

[Al Rivas <ARivas () hyphensolutions com>]

So the U.S. government has had this idea to tag our passports, drivers licenses etc, with RFID.  Dan Goodin, has 
created this video showing why this is not a good idea.  The problem is that technology is growing in breadth and 
complexity faster than bureaucrats can wrap their minds around it.  The vast majority of the decision makers on these 
programs can't spell computer and have only slight exposure to . "the internets".  

Someone presents them with a technology, (I'd bet the farm that the presenter sells that particular technology), and 
the bureaucratic bean counter says "Whoopee !  And how much is my cut so I can vote for this ?"

Everyone makes money, and America is safer, they have the PowerPoint Slides that say so.

Here's an excerpt from the article "Using inexpensive off-the-shelf components, an information security expert has 
built a mobile platform that can clone large numbers of the unique electronic identifiers used in US passport cards and 
next generation drivers licenses."

Here's Dan's excellent video showing how he did it :

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/02/video-hacker-war-drives-san-francisco-cloning-rfid-passports/


Excerpt from Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative - the project injecting RFID into government docs.
"Each day, an average of 1.1 million pedestrians and passengers enter the United States for business or pleasure. In 
order to facilitate cross-border travel for U.S. citizens while enhancing the security of our citizens and travelers, 
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) proposes to expand the use of vicinity radio frequency identification (RFID) 
technology at land border ports of entry. The use of this technology will be a key component of the PASS System 
(People, Access Security Service), announced in January 2006 by Secretaries Rice and Chertoff as part of their Joint 
Vision -"Secure Borders and Open Doors in the Information Age.""