Guardian: Hackers Crack Biometric Passports

international | anti-capitalism | other press Monday August 07, 2006 16:07 by Chris Murray - The Unmanageables

"The Whole Passport design is totally Brain-damaged"

From: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/0,,782450,00.html

A 415 million pound scheme of biometric passports is in question today
after hackers broke the codes (within two weeks) of the biometric
passport scheme- ( A Blairite response to 9/11)
The biometric info includes finger-prints, facial scan and iris patterns.

The full report is in today's Guardian
The scheme , or technology was also part of a national i.d card scheme
which was to be introduced soon, in Britain.

A conference in Las Vegas , addressed by Lukas Grumwald (german security company)
was told that the hackers cloned the info stored in the new passports and then
transferred it onto blank chips, which could then be implanted in false passports.

Grunwald said that the accomplishmnet undermined the British biometric project.

The hacker equipment cost $200.

In Ireland the financial sector are currently lobbying the National Parliament to
introduce a similiar scheme nationally which would see all of us carrying national
i.d. The reason for the lobby is stated as: a deterrent against money laundering
and financial crime.
Http;//technology.guardian.co.uk/0,,782450,00.html