Follow-Up: Chips in US Passports looking "not so secure"

[Dakkareth]

2. The chips only contain the carriers name, birth date & photo. Encryption isn't really a great need there.

What if I don't want to 'show' my driving license to any random stranger?

The Cyberpunk lover in me says sweeeeet. The paranoid in me says oh noooo...

Cyberpunk (as far as I understand it) often had/has 'dangers of powerful technology in the hands of irresponsible people' as subject ...

In anycase, when I first read about the things a couple of years ago, they entioend that really the reader itself plays a lot into how far away it can be read, and "theoreticaly" you could build a reader that can read the current chips from much farther away.

Indeed, the range depends on the reader. To detect a RFID chip from a distance of 1ft a cheap, home-made reader will suffice - with a sufficiently sophisticated receiving part the range can be much increased.

 

[AGGEMAM]

Plus it gives terrorists a very handy tool. Buy one of these long distance readers or build it yourself (not difficult believe me), and you can start skimming the streets of Bagdag or whatever the trouble zone is at that time for potential hostage victims. :\

 

[Davelozzi]

If you really want to be frightened, think about how these are pretty much the same chips Walmart already uses on it's products ...So what? Well, now you have the potential for people to drive down the block and "see" who has the most expensive stuff...

Right, it's the guy who doesn't set off your reader at all because he's certainly not doing his shopping at Walmart.

Disclaimer: Okay, I admit, I snipped "...and are gaining popularity with other stores" from the quote for the sake of the joke.

 

[Scribble]

Right, it's the guy who doesn't set off your reader at all because he's certainly not doing his shopping at Walmart.

Disclaimer: Okay, I admit, I snipped "...and are gaining popularity with other stores" from the quote for the sake of the joke.

Haha that's ok, I like jokes. Plus that's just ONE of the myriad of reasons I don't shop at walmart anymore. (But I better be crefull the Sam's Cops might come for me )

Cyberpunk (as far as I understand it) often had/has 'dangers of powerful technology in the hands of irresponsible people' as subject ...

Yeah cyberpunk is basically a reaction to SciFi, wher instead of the future being bright and happy and technology helping mankind be great, we do the same thing with it that we always have and make the future dirty and miserable.
The technology they use tends to be just like this type of technology and its use by the french club. The club is using it because it's "cool" and will drawl a crowd, without any real thought on possible consequences.

I'm a big fan of cyberpunk, and anytime something happens that the books have "predicted" it gives me sort of a mixed feeling. Cool because it makes me sort of feel like I'm living the stories, but bad because well, then I realise the horror that entails haha