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US Government To Release Electronic Passport
Posted by
samzenpus
on Wed Jan 02, 2008 06:33 PM
from the all-the-better-to-track-you-with dept.
from the all-the-better-to-track-you-with dept.
XueCast writes "The federal government has announced that they will release new electronic Passport cards in either April or May 2008. The cards could be read wirelessly from up to 20 feet away, which could reduce the waiting time at border checkpoints. Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For Passport Services, Ann Barrett said, "As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through.""
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Your Rights Online: EU Plans to Require Biometrics for Visitors 238 comments
bushwhacker2000 writes to tell us that the EU may soon be requiring travelers to provide biometric data before crossing into Europe. They are trying to soften the blow by offering "streamlined" services for frequent travelers but the end result seems the same. "The proposals, contained in draft documents examined by the International Herald Tribune and scheduled to go to the European Commission on Wednesday, were designed to bring the EU visa regime into line with a new era in which passports include biometric data. The commission, the EU executive, argues that migratory pressure, organized crime and terrorism are obvious challenges to the Union and that the bloc's border and visa policy needs to be brought up to date."
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Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Awesome (Score:5, Informative)
It's not just about Americans.
Australians have had to use RFID-embedded passports [dfat.gov.au] for the past couple of years to comply with US regulations. Can't say it's sped up my travels at all.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
No air travel?! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:No air travel?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:No air travel?! (Score:5, Insightful)
It takes 2-3 hours to get everyone off one of those big cruise ships because of the need to get 2000 people through customs at once. This sounds like it could speed that process up.
The root cause of the problem isn't the number of people, i'ts the lame-ass system in the first place. It's a lot like DRM. People who want to enter the country for nefarious purposes will always have a variety of methods of entry that completely bypass these systems. But thosewho wish to enter legally have to jump through all the hoops. Essentially it punishes the law-abiding citizens and ignores the law breakers. Sure, the system will occasionally catch someone with a felony conviction in their home country who didn't know that would disqualify them from entry. But chances are, those people weren't up to no good, they were just on a trip like any other regular joe and denying them entry doesn't improve the situation at all.
Parent
Re:No air travel?! (Score:5, Informative)
You're right that this is useless tech however. It takes about 4 seconds for a border officer to process your passport. The reason there are bottlenecks at ports of entry is because there tends to be a maximum of two border agents for every 50 people trying to cross.
Parent
Come on in! (Score:3, Interesting)
I recommend a fake ID with a birthdate of February 29. Customs systems reject this date so they can't look up any records.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Ummm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ummm. (Score:5, Informative)
There are certainly ways [wikipedia.org] to perform key exchanges and begin encrypted communication without being vulnerable to eavesdropping.
My understanding (which may be wrong) of the main problem with these RFID devices is that there is in fact no handshaking or encryption, and that the device will happily spill its guts to anything that asks.
Parent
Re:Ummm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Ummm. (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Robert Stetham [wikipedia.org]
Leon Klinghoffer [wikipedia.org]
Many others [americanmemorialsite.com]
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
100+ Yen to the Dollar, yet the Japanese aren't considered particularly poor...
The ones, who are walking around in Paris, are still quite rich — by the standards of a lowlife robber, anyway.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ummm. (Score:4, Informative)
There should not be much more "guts" to spill, than the passport number itself. This will not give an attacker much information at all — other than: "There exists a passport with this number," but in those few seconds, that it takes a person to walk up to the counter, their giant picture will already be on the officer's screen for verification...
It would still be a hole, but a much smaller one than it may seem at the first suspicious glance. It will, hopefully, be further narrowed by making these passports respond to RFID-readers only when they are opened and, maybe, only when directed towards the reader — simply by making the passport's cover with some RF-blocking material.
All of these measures will make your hypothetical eavesdropper rather impractical even without encryption.
People have been using EZ-Pass and similar (oppressive) RFID-readers for many years now to go through highway robbery, ehm, tools... Yet there are no stories of EZ-Pass numbers picked-up by hidden crooks and plugged into fake EZ-Pass devices for resale... Maybe, someone is doing it, but it sounds more difficult, than crossing into the US through the Southern border.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
encryption doesn't matter (Score:3, Interesting)
If you have a device that detects RFIDs and you find someone walking down the street in a country outside the USA with an RFID on their person, then that person is most likely to carrying an American passport. If you are looking to kidnap or kill an American because your God has given His OK to do so (the mullah told you so), well then chances are very hig
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Who wants to lay odds on the chances of the US government making such "obstruction and/or obfuscation, or possession of such obstruction or obfuscation device(s) or material(s)" at any time by such a passport holder highly illegal? It would follow with the rest of the brain-dead security theater "logic" we've seen so far.
Cheers!
Strat
Re:Ummm. (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Re:Ummm. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Ummm. (Score:5, Interesting)
What I really don't understand about the entire discussion is this: what the border guards actually look at is not what's written on your passport; it's what's stored in their database (from which, in the case of your own citizens, the passports were generated in the first place). So all that is needed is a serial number, right? You type your SSN into a keypad (or for that matter, swipe any one of your credit cards—nobody believes that the security establishment pays any attention to data protection laws, anyway), your photo pops up on the guy's screen, and if it's you, you're through. Everything else is either a holdover from the days before networks, or a diversion.
So ... what's this really about? I ask this not as a tinfoil hat question, but because I'm truly mystified.
I'll say it again. Now there's an Internet, you do not need to carry ID. The Man already has your file, and it's only because 'biometric' face recognition doesn't actually work yet that you carry any cards at all. There's no reason for cards to hold any data beyond a big number. There's no reason for them to be unique. There's no need for them to encode anything that can be used against you. There's no reason for any of this nonsense.
The only motivation I can think of for these measures is so that they can charge you more application fees for the new ID. What on earth am I missing?
Parent
Re:Ummm. (Score:5, Funny)
Don't panic. The transition doesn't take very long, and when it's complete you'll be amazed to discover how much else starts making sense too.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Every security measure I've seen for RFID involves some encryption, and a "Handshake" between the reader and card. In a packed situation like an airport, it would be really easy to have an electronic device sniff this handshake, and by pretending to be a reader, lift multiple passport ID's off of people while passing by.
Umm, no. You should really learn something about cryptography and/or RFID before making statements like this.
Uses Standard RFID Technology. (Score:4, Informative)
Nothing a microwave oven on high for 2-3 seconds (or a hammer and hard surface) won't solve: http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&safe=off&q=RFID+disabling+passport&btnG=Search [google.com]
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Joke's on you... DHS is forbidding passengers to carry more than one square inch of tinfoil through security, or more than three square inches in checked luggage, because it could be crumpled up and fashioned into a weapon.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
These will be optional. (Score:2, Informative)
"Waved on through..." (Score:5, Insightful)
"As people are approaching a port of inspection, they can show the card to the reader, and by the time they get to the inspector, all the information will have been verified and they can be waved on through," said Ann Barrett, deputy assistant secretary of state for passport services, commenting on the final rule on passport cards published yesterday in the Federal Register.
Hahahahaha. You have got to be fucking kidding me. I have been the United States on two separate occasions via air in the last few years and in both cases neither myself nor any of my fellow passengers were ever "waved on through" inspection. Everybody got the royal ass raping treatment and this comment by Ann Barrett is just a bureaucratic pie-in-the-sky sales job for the new passports.
Re: (Score:2)
Being an old fart I remember the BIG DEAL when "machine readable" passports were created, and the idea then was that apparently it would save a tremendous amount of time because you could just swipe your
Re:"Waved on through..." (Score:5, Insightful)
I think we know by now that the "war on terror" isn't going to be decreasing terrorism [it is in fact increasing it] nor is it protecting freedoms or safety, it is in fact eroding freedoms that they never had the right to take away in the first place. sigh... as an American, I hope this never spreads to Canada but judging by recent events, it may indeed happen anyway...
Parent
Re:"Waved on through..." (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Does the US entry suck? Yes, it does. But in my experience in the last year when I entered Canada (driving across the border at Sumas), China, Japan, Chile, France, the UK, Indonesia and Russia I got a lot more scrutiny and more of the "ass raping treatment" you complain about
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
This is partly false. U.S. permanent residents need only present their Permanent Resident Card to enter the U.S.. Of course, if they travel anywhere that requires they have a passport they would have one from their country of citizenship anyway. But Canadians, for example, do no
OPTIONAL for frequent travelers that want it! (Score:3, Insightful)
I know the universal ID/RFIDs are legitimate stories, but this card story is non-story turned into a potential page churner ONLY because of the single detail left out of the write-up.
Shoddy editing job.
most everyone here would wrap it in foil (Score:4, Interesting)
at times like these, why root against incompetence? it always seems to win
so go with the flow i say
anyone want to rent a 3rd story apt in niagara falls canada with me and point an rfid reader out the window?
I travel from Mexico regularly..... (Score:4, Funny)
As for an RFID solution, what makes that better than the 'instincts' of the Border Patrol? I think that could be faked so fast that a young male of middle eastern descent could could get through as an asian business person just because the border card said so.
Wonderful. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wonderful. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Wonderful. (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Re:Wonderful. (Score:5, Informative)
Furthermore, these new passports have a half-assed faraday cage built into the cover, but like so much of government it really is half-assed. All it takes is for the cover to be open by less than a centimeter, as might easily happen in lady's purse, and the RFID is no longer protected against unwanted access/detection.
Parent
Be careful about the embassy... (Score:4, Interesting)
1. If the trouble is criminal in nature, and you're accused of the crime, the embassy will probably just hand you over to local police. True, you can receive visits from your consular officer after you've been put in jail, but that's after the fact. Everything you've seen in Hollywood on this subject is 100% incorrect. An American Citizen Services officer I spoke with jokingly told me that his job consisted of calling parents and telling them, "yes, I know Johnny's a good boy, but he did something really stupid here, and now he's in jail. No, we can't actually do anything for him other than visit him. Sorry."
2. The consulate is used to dealing with American citizens without passports - it replaces lost/stolen ones all the time. A photocopy won't hurt you at all in that respect - just tell them your passport is lost, but present a photocopy. They may want to know more personal information, and you'll have to pay a fee, but you'll be fine.
3. If you believe the embassy will provide you great protection, think again. It's not like the movies - there is no company of Marines there to defend all the Americans in the gates. An embassy generally depends on local police for security and its small (quite small) contingent of Marine Security Guards (MSGs) for the last line of defense. Even then, their primary concern is the classified material. That said, there is nothing in this world like walking into your office and seeing a big MSG at the door. You know that, as an employee of the US Government, it'll take something approaching an army to get past that man so long as he's got breath in him and Rules of Engagement that allow him to fight. I've never been in the military, but God bless the USMC. That said, as a mere citizen, I wouldn't depend on the embassy to provide you any great protection and, if it comes down to that, do keep in mind that the embassy will likely be a big target for angry mobs.
Personally, I would recommend waiting out any big disturbance and, if things appear to only be getting worse, getting to the airport ASAP with your passport - and you'll have a much better chance of not getting your passport stolen if it was in a safe in a location you can access when everything hit the fan. And trust me, huge riots can pop up at any time, without much warning. I was in Argentina in December in 2001... what a month. I felt good knowing that my passport was in a safe, across town in a quiet part of the city, in a locked building, behind a gate, with a security guard, rather than on my person in the middle of a riot.
4. As far as hotels, at least in some European countries, it's my understanding that registering your location is a basic part of life. I believe that in Italy (could be totally off) that people are required to register (in theory) with the local police. Hotels register their clients with the police as well (I think... once again, don't take this as hard and fast truth). Your documents are generally held for this purpose. But, as this isn't too big a deal, most hotels don't push you on it.
Long story short, I'd think twice about keeping a passport on me 24/7 if I don't absolutely need to do so (as in the Russia example cited above).
Parent
Don't see how it will help with lines (Score:5, Insightful)
Hallelujah!!! (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously...with all their "paperness" and "non-electronicky" and all that.
Someone call Apple!
How about people read the FA?? (Score:3, Informative)
Also in the FA it is stated that all that is contained is the passport number - presumably the rest of the details get looked up.
So, here we have a card that:
a) costs still more money.
b) can't be used at airports (just land and sea border crossings)
c) can't identify you to random strangers - they'll need access to the US passport database.
So the point of this is that when you're driving across the border from Canada, they've verified your passport details while you wait in the queue, then all they do is take a look at you and send you through to customs.
Of course, this same thing could be done by having a second checkpoint to do the Q&A stuff.
Now, can we please take all the comments about lines at the airport out of the discussion?