Fergie's Tech Blog

Could the New U.S. RFID Passports Trigger a Bomb?

Laura Coverson writes on ABC News:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to issue 13 million passports this year. And one group of security experts says the American passports could be used as potential bomb triggers.

The new e-passports, fitted with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags for wireless processing when people pass through Customs, will be issued for the first time this week, starting at the Aurora, Colo., Passport Agency.

But experts at Flexilis, a Los Angeles RFID security firm, argue that the digital document could be used to set off a bomb. An e-passport containing stolen RFID tag data need not even come in contact with the bomb trigger. It only has to be nearby.

posted by Fergie @ 8/16/2006 04:37:00 PM