National ID and RFID Passports

There has been lots of concern about the whole National ID (RealID) and RFID Passports (and even making Driver's Licenses RFID...)
Part of the concern is over privacy. Do we really know what data is contained in the micro-chip that is being scanned.
The other part is security. Who can read these RFID chips and where/when can they be read.

The bad news is, once you have one of these chips with all your data on them, you are toast. Anyone willing to spend $250 at radio-shack can build a reader that can scan your passport/national id/driver's license/credit card from over 30 feet away. With stolen IDs going for $60 to $3000 a piece (depending on who much info they get), it wouldn't take long to pay off that investment.

We usually look to other countries to get ideas and to try technologies...lets look at Britain: They cannot even read their own RFID...

Exclusive: ID cards are here - but police can't read them

And their system cost approx $7 BILLION to implement...
Should we follow that example? Especially in light of a $250 criminal making million off stolen identities, who can read your data when the Government cannot?
Sounds like a failing strategy to me...(so the Government will prolly try to do it "at all costs"...seems to be the way of things.)

Passport RFIDs cloned wholesale by $250 eBay auction spree

Hackers clone passports in drive-by RFID heist

Cloning passport card RFIDs in bulk for under $250

Then, when someone does "blow the wistle" on the stupid problems, security holes, or other issues, they get GAGGED...or they get stranded in a foreign country and on a black list...

RFID maker gags security researcher

"Privacy Baseline" For European EID Cards

MasterCard says millions no-touch cards to be issued

Mon Sep 19, 2005 1:07 PM ET
By James B. Kelleher

MEMPHIS, Sept 19 (Reuters) - A top executive with Mastercard Inc. (MA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday the company, the world's No. 2 credit-card association, expected to have 4 million so-called "pay pass" cards in circulation by year's end.

Speaking at an industry conference here, Ruth Ann Marshall, Americas president for MasterCard, said that Citibank, HSBC and Key Bank had all begun offering the cards, which are equipped with a radio-frequency chip that allows customers to pay for purchases by simply waving their cards at readers posted near cash registers or gas pumps.

Marshall said the pay-pass cards were "easier to use than cash" and were one of the products MasterCard was counting on to increase revenue and profits as it faces a variety of challenges in the marketplace, including new rivals and regulatory scrutiny.

...

(This Excerpt is provided for informational, educational, and discussion purposes only. It is Copyright "Reuters", for the full article search Reuters' web site or Google with the title of this article)

SO, a question here...
What would prevent a person from setting up a "shop" in a mall or something, modifying the antenna on the reader, and racking up "charges" from his "legitimate" terminal, and then disappearing with all that money?

Criminals to 'adapt to ID cards'

By Jonathan Amos
BBC News science reporter, Dublin

ID cards promise a more secure form of technology

The UK government's proposed ID scheme will do little to stop identity theft and may actually exacerbate fraudulent behaviour in its early years.

That is the view of researcher Dr Emily Finch who interviews career criminals about their activities.

She has detailed how they adapt their strategies to get around new anti-crime technologies such as chip and pin.

Dr Finch will tell a Dublin conference that these criminals will be undaunted by the prospect of identity cards.

...

(This Excerpt is provided for informational, educational, and discussion purposes only. It is Copyright "BBC News", for the full article search CBBC News' web site or Google with the title of this article)