Ireland getting naked e-passports

If you think you're at risk of identity theft and targeted assassination attempts with your new RFID-enabled passport, just think of the Irish for a moment: they started getting e-passports last week that don't even include the little mesh jacket that supposedly keeps our version safe from unauthorized readers. With Dutch and German passports based on the same ICAO guidelines having already been successfully intercepted and decrypted, people are understandably concerned that the US didn't think this policy all the way through before making it a requirement of the Visa Waiver program, and now it seems that some of the affected countries are willing to implement even shoddier security than a type that is already deemed risky. According to Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs, shielding the new documents is not necessary because they can only be detected when open and close to a reader, even though the general consensus is that the read distance of the chips they're using can be as much as several meters. Apparently the immediate fear is not so much over stolen identities (because of encryption), however, as it is about terrorists being able to use so-called RFID skimmers for targeting groups of people based on their nationality.

[Deluxe @ Oct 23rd 2006 10:43PM]

This whole 'world is gonna end because of RFID' thing is completely ridiculous. Most people don't seem to understand that RFID payment and ID is common place, and used by hundreds of millions of people every day outside the west.

There's no looting, rioting or flaming toilet-paper throwing. The Earth still spins, the sky is still blue and HP still sucks.

Get over it, or get out of the way.
Your pal, reality.

[Brandon West @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:00PM]

Deluxe, your comment scares me. You seem to be arguing that just because a technology is widespread, it is not flawed.

I realize RFID has some practical and clever implementations, but passports are not one of them. Can you explain to me the benefits of having an RFID passport? I can think of several reason I don't want one (cost of passport, broadcasting easily-copied data), and not a single reason it will help me.

Seems like a case of ignorant politicians getting sold on buzzword technology by lobbyists and lawyers. The whole thing smacks of a solution that found a problem.

[Deluxe @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:08PM]

I'm not saying it's now flawed. I mean, so is windows but I still use it :P. Cars kill people, but they're still on the road.

I personally, don't have an RFID passport, I had to renew mine just before the switch over in Australia, so I don't but my partner does. At airports she is processed much faster than I am, and once you've been waiting for 45 minutes in queue after a decade-long flight you're glad to get out of there a minute faster. That being said however, as a Hong-Kong resident, she can pass through HK biometrics in a matter of seconds, while I have to stand there kicking my baggage for half an hour.

It's probably also worth noting that if you're leaving the country through an international portal and big brother wants to keep an eye on you - RFID passports are the least of your worries.

[furtim @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:24PM]

Concern over RFID passports has nothing to do with the supposed "Big Brother" and everything to do with ID theft. And if you think ID theft is a myth, check your spam filter.

[Murc @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:28PM]

Not smart of Ireland.

The US ones have been checked time and again...and as lond as there closed in the booklet thing that they come in...they cant be picked up.

My advise for Irelanders(?) wrap your passprt in tinfoil...yes it sounds a little kooky and paranoid...but its been proven to be effective.

[Jay @ Oct 24th 2006 12:23AM]

we live in a paranoiod fucking world. As the decades pass, we as free people of this world are losing our space. More and more I see us imitating art as in sci-fi films depicting the disintegration of privacy and stands.

fucking A.

[Eric @ Oct 24th 2006 1:39AM]

Screw all this worry about identification. I've got a finger print and a retina and a facial structure. Put them into the friggin computer and get it over with. I'd rather they computerized and quickly checked all of the above rather than spending my millions of tax dollars and fidgeting over bandaid solutions that are just as bad as the existing FLAWED system.

If you can't get into the US don't like waiting in line, or don't have a passport, go to mexico. It's much easier to walk accross the border, you don't have to wait in lines, and the airport security won't steal your unopened can of Mt.Dew. (like mine was earlier today. I didn't even know the security scanner had removed it until I got on the plane!)

[Samuel Curtis @ Oct 24th 2006 4:23AM]

I people would even more think of Big Brothering when they have to register their biometrics to the US Department of State.

[PJK @ Oct 24th 2006 4:18AM]

I'm Irish and this comes as no surprise. The government have already tried to implement an electronic voting system, which was scrapped. They tried to implement a new health software system in the hospitals, went millions over budget and was scrapped.

The Irish government couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but unfortunately the opposition is even worse.

[Kilters @ Oct 24th 2006 5:56AM]

I'm Irish and the government here are as stupid as they are ineffective. Another case of cost cutting in the wrong area and bad judgement. I despair. The country is doing well but for how long with these incompetents running it.

[r3loaded @ Nov 3rd 2007 5:56AM]

Rofl: "The Irish government couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery"

I thought that was a strong point of the Irish...

[jasondefaoite @ Oct 24th 2006 7:58AM]

Actually, I am about to replace my soon to be expired passport, and was actually looking at this area. I believe the contents on the chip are protected, and can only be accessed by entering an access code which is printed inside the passport itself. I'd still prefer they have the passport covers with a wire mess to give yet another layer of protection, but to say the passport is naked is not entirely true.

[Tech^Cellfish @ Oct 24th 2006 8:18AM]

If you have to open the passport and read a code - whats the use of RFID again? Why not use a chip with metal contacts on one of the pages inside the passport? (only issue there is wear and tear, better than poor security)

I hope RFID gasoline cards get implemented in Norway soon, gas prices are way to high.

[Ron @ Oct 24th 2006 8:19AM]

The fear of terrorists using the info to identify potential targets is a bit unreasonable. I'm American and we can be picked out of a crowd almost anywhere.

Ron

[J @ Oct 24th 2006 11:22AM]

I was hoping for a better picture...

[KJH @ Oct 24th 2006 12:25PM]

The vulnerabilities of RFID as it exists today are all too real: http://gizmosforgeeks.com/index.php/news/2304

[bernard @ Oct 24th 2006 6:12PM]

The reason Ireland (who's nationals are called Irish, btw) has started these ridiculous electronic passports, is well, in the near future, if you want to get into the US, its going to be required.

1. the technology is widespread, but this usage is flawed. rlogin was widespread, but flawed. then it was knocked on the head.
2 "I mean, so is windows but I still use it :P. Cars kill people, but they're still on the road"

No, cars don't kill people, the idiots who drive them badly do. just the same way that RFIDs don't steal peoples data, its the criminals who exploit them that steal peoples data.

3. "At airports she is processed much faster than I am"
-I dont want to be processed, I ain't a lump of ham. The benefits of having a security official look at the passport holder, outweighs the "benefit" of speeding up queues.

4. "If you have to open the passport and read a code - whats the use of RFID again? Why not use a chip with metal contacts on one of the pages inside the passport?"
- like mechain readable passports (swipe strips)? We used them up until recently. swipe strips can't hold as much data on them as chips. i do not see the problem with that.

see: www.digitalrights.ie for more

b