Hackers crack new biometric passports

It's not like various people haven't been saying that this is likely to be possibel. Now the point here is that this is not only proof of concept, it's poc with the technology that they are already using and which is being given as the ostensible driver for the British government to move ahead with chipped ID cards.

Lukas Grunwald, a consultant with a German security company, said he had discovered a method for cloning the information stored in the new passports. Data can be transferred onto blank chips, which could then be implanted in fake passports, a flaw which he said undermined the project. The revelation also casts another shadow over the government's plan for a national ID card, which would contain much of the same information.

And it's why I'm intending to get some kind of RFID protection wallet for my new passport.

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technology | Hackers crack new biometric passports: Filed in: ID_cards, passports, data, hackchip