How to clone yourself a VeriChip

Just how it seems VeriChip has moved their implantable RFID tags from executives, to law enforcement, to soldiers -- and we're sure their next step is every baby born in the US as the child exits its mother's womb -- the ability to hack the chips has quickly made its way into the hands of the common man as well. Jonathan Westhues has posted up a tutorial for building your very own VeriChip cloner that lets you point and clone with the greatest of ease, stealing at whim the identities of all those foolish security conscious enough to wear an RFID tag within their flesh. We won't get into all the technical details involved in sticking it to the man in such a way, but the hack really doesn't look too incredibly hard as far as these things go, and it's not like you had anything better planned for a Tuesday night, right?

[Via MAKE]

[furtim @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:43PM]

I, for one, welcome our new RFID-cloning overlords.

(What? Someone had to do it.)

[Brady Dahl @ Oct 3rd 2006 10:56PM]

ROFLMAO!!! I was thinking of that just as I clicked on the comments link for this article... Good one!

[Osiris @ Oct 3rd 2006 11:32PM]

Hmm as much as i disagree with RFID being used for security ID, I do think it has it's uses as ID to another extent.

It could be used to store information about your body conditions you have so that in an emergency you could be scanned to solve how to treat you accordingly.

Also it could be a form of ID that would tell who to contact, but not an ID confirming solidly who you are.

In such a case it wouldn't be desireable to copy, but just be more useful to the health conscious among us.

[Mike @ Oct 4th 2006 1:16AM]

Hmm... a brilliant idea?

[Kenno @ Oct 4th 2006 1:18AM]

Like many modern chip bearing people, I have my chip located in a place in my body that I won't disclose. To thwart these wanton identity hacking geekoids, I have two other chips in more obvious places where they can help themselves to my version of Thelma, the cataplectic arsonist and Bob, the esoteric fern farmer with bad feet. If you want to dial in on the real Kenno, well, I'll have to show you where to put the antena...

Oh come on, you know this going to happen, many city dwellers carry the mugging wallet wtih $10 in it. I am your future, baby!

[RijilV @ Oct 4th 2006 1:55AM]

Elsewhere on his site he notes that these verichips where designed for your pets with no security in mind. The fact that this company convinced the world to buy into this for security purposes is shameful.

On the otherhand, we do get the irony wearing tags like our pets...

[Me? A luddite? @ Oct 4th 2006 4:47AM]

My dog has a microchip thingy in his neck and I haven't lost him yet (touches wood).

[MEAT! @ Oct 4th 2006 8:12AM]

Wtf is up with this?

"A similar circuit might be of interest to designers of improvised explosive devices (e.g., mines that explode only for American soldiers)"

Did I visit your site to see how you made a clever circuit, or did I come to hear you spread your baseless, pretending-to-be-neutral FUD? Are these types of chips currently avaliable in countries that produce IEDs? Has there been any instance of an RFID chip setting off ANY hostile explosive device? Will this type of RFID chip even give off a unique signature for an American that would need to be checked by your little hacked up circuit board before the device is exploded?

[Tony @ Oct 21st 2006 6:08PM]

So much for it's so called claimed security, and this thing has been implanted in over 2000 people worldwide to date including healthcare patients, nightclubbers and government workers.

What's more worrying is that in the future it looks set to replace the mandatory ID cards that are now being brought into effect by governments accross the globe!

For a wealth of information about the verichip, including hacking, up to date reports, users so far and tracking abilities visit the NOIDCHIP forum here http://noidchip.free-forums.org/

[thePeoplesLaughter @ Aug 31st 2008 4:32AM]

I'm glad there's an easy way to clone these. It might save some "end user" an arm or a leg.