Listening to: Check It Out - John Mellencamp

My new passport arrived today… with a nice little payload:

This puppy has got an RFID tag built into it (that’s what that logo means). In the case of this model of passport it is a thicker (1-2 mm) plastic page at the end of the document. Eeeps! I broadcast enough info as it is!

A phone call to DIA confirms (eventually) that it has shielding built into the cover. Some snooping around the web shows that the security mechanisms have been beefed up since the original spec. The data can only be accessed using a printed key on the inside of the cover that is read by an OCR device. Though I can’t find information about the spec used for NZ passports. Conversely that same line of research shows that the court is still out on whether or not these things are totally secure.

As far as I can tell the time of highest risk is when your passport is open (even partially - ?) so for the tin-foil hats amongst us here are a list of shielding providers (they will enclose your passport completely even when it is partially open):

• RFID Shield
• Emvelope
• ESD Product
• Passport Stronghold

To reduce the number of times that you need to open your passport Kevin Kelly has provided a neat, simple and legal Passport Proxy. This can be used in hotels and other less secure areas.

For a bit more info I recommend checking out Bruce Schneier’s articles on the topic (he’s no fan of the technology, but he does provide a lot detail about the issue):

• RFID Passports - 4th Oct 2004
• RFID Passport Security - 28th April 2005
• RFID Passport Security Revisited - 9th August 2005
• Fatal Flaw Weakens RFID Passports - 3rd of November 2005

What is the real risk? I don’t honestly know… but I do know, as a programmer, that these systems will not be bullet proof and that over the lifetime of my document some young punk will work out a way to cause a bit of havoc.

The other interesting thing that I found was that the RFID holds an image of the document’s owner. The reason that they are now so stringent about the photos that you submit is because it helps the facial recognition software used at borders.

I do wish that DIA provided some more information about the security measures.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 28th, 2007 at 6:56 pm and is filed under Dave Likes Gadgets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.