sparks wrote:
Placing RFID chips in driver's licenses and passports has nothing to do with wiretapping. The purpose of using this technology is to make it more difficult for terrorists or criminals to obtain false ID's. RFID chips don't target US citizens,they add another layer of security
for US citizens. Judging by the tone of your post,you really have your shorts in a bunch over this issue. It must be hard to spend your days cowering in fear over some imaginary threat you feel our government is trying to perpetrate against you. Listen to that wingnut stuff long enough and you might end up like this guy Whatever their intentions, these are not the brightest kids on the block when it comes to security. RFID is easily hacked and identity thieves are exploiting the technology on an every day basis. Now only can they use receivers to gain access to my credit card information, but now they can get my address, my DOB, my DL number and more off of my RFID tagged Drivers License to complete my information. Lets add my SS# off my passport ... And they can just open new accounts left and right.
The security of RFID is just not there yet, and the government requiring it is putting my information at risk. Already RFID credit cards, transit cards, and passports have been hacked.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090711/ap_on_bi_ge/us_chipping_america_ivQuote:
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents — passports, drivers licenses, and the like — with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
But then again ..... it's nothing that a hammer can't be used to disable .......
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/start.html?pg=9Quote:
4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it.
HUMM, now I got a decision to make. Microwave or sledgehammer !