AllieKat

I'd be happy to shoot a video if you want proof. Something that poster was unwilling to do. I just haven't had a chance yet.

Also, my results are well within the studied read range of the chip itself - his are ridiculous. There's no way a proximity read chip is getting read from across a room. The mere thought of it is basically ridiculous.

Finally, the point of my thread was to ask others to try it - I basically believe the State department claims and want to see if somehow the shield in mine is broken (cracked or something in a way that it is ineffective).

But, good point, I will try to have a video up this weekend.

N965VJ

I gave my US passport, and passport card, some Hammer Time when I first received them. Yes, I have been informed by a CBP officer in this forum that it is illegal to do so, and I've yet to hear of a conviction for doing so. I've had no issues at all transiting customs. ^

RF shielding devices may work, but some of the stuff out there looks to be in the category of things to "protect" one from cell phone radiation.

I think it's something like the sleeve I used to get with ATM cards; that is, it's only purpose is to keep it from getting scuffed up. My passport card has been rubbing up against the credit cards in my money clip for several years now. It's scuffed, but perfectly readable.

As an aside, my passport card has been accepted 100% as a form of ID for a while now, from TSA employees doing imprtant Airline Revenue Protection duties, hotels, liquor stores, etc.

chollie

There's no way to verify that the video is real, so I personally wouldn't consider it compelling - whether you or the other poster provided it. (Same response TSA gave when Corbett provided video evidence of the scanner vulnerabilities).

You do raise an interesting question about the shielding - the nature of the shielding and whether or not it is vulnerable to being somehow rendered ineffective. Perhaps you could experiment with augmenting (temporarily, of course) your passport with the shielding from a NEXUS or similar card and see if you are still able to read the card.

I have no idea how this technology relates to what's in a NEXUS card, but at land crossings prior to the readers being installed, either the card was read from well over 3 feet away or the CBP agents in the booths were looking at a blank screen and waving us through.

AllieKat

True, but video is much harder to forge than saying "hey look, I did this thing that certainly isn't really possible"

As for the NEXUS card, it has a different type of chip in it. I don't know, well, anything about it. But I do know it's not a standard 13.56 MHz HF tag (proximity read).

It likely has a much larger read range than the standard tags used in passports, yes. It's also much less complex... the goal is just to get the tag number, not a fair amount of data including a photo.

Now - as for destroying the chips. BAD idea. I'm glad you've had no trouble, but it sure means no future automated passport control for you; and it's only asking for trouble some day - when you least have time for it.

chollie

Video means nothing. You can fake both the materials being read and the devices used to do it. I personally would never take a video of a demonstration of this sort as accurate unless I had compelling evidence that the tester was in fact reliable.

I don't know who your final remarks are addressed to, but for the record: I have never suggested destroying chips. I have seen knowledgeable posters in this forum point out that the chips can stop functioning over time without any sort of deliberate abuse. Currently, of course, such concerns aren't even an issue for me (or thousands of others): my passport predates RFID chips and it works just fine at the present time.

AllieKat

Not destroying the chip was targeted at the other poster.

The NEXUS card is identical in technology to the PASS system card (aka US Passport Card). I finally found a published read range, NOT detailed technical specs though. 50 metres - vicinity read card. The same site quotes the eMRTD passport chips as being 75 cm effective range.

http://www.securitydocumentworld.com...kjdi_20091.pdf

This is, as I suspected, why they can read your NEXUS from such a distance - it's a very low-power, simplistic device intended to be read from a long distance without much data transfer - similar to inventory tracking systems in warehouses.

AllieKat

Chollie, obviously you have already said you believe this video is going to be fake, but to anyone else out there interested in seeing the fact that my passport has no issue reading from the back despite the shielding, I made a video of it to show you and I compared it to a British passport being read. Sorry for the poor quality.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YJ0WE6hYFc

DirtyDan

Video not acceptable. We would prefer a written paper which documents the double-blind study you conducted solely within the confines of an internationally accredited research facility - and then only after it's been peer reviewed in the leading RFID-technology journals... Thanks for posting.


Can anyone recommend a decent passport / credit card wallet that will block scanners? (upcoming trip to MOW has me worried a little)

AllieKat

Frankly, it's academically interesting, but not a practical concern. Due to the Basic Access Control encryption, even if someone can read your passport, they can't actually READ it - it's encrypted. At most, they may be able to profile the chip's response and determine what country it's from or at least what group of several countries that may use the same type of chip

SeriouslyLost

Uhhh, you do realize that BAC encryption was cracked (eg. here) in less than ~2 hours back in ~2006? It's only designed to keep honest people from prying. As encryption goes, it's pretty much a joke and it's trivial to find the software for it on teh intertubes.

Box5

I do not know the effectiveness of shielding but I would like to know.

For my NEXUS card, I put it in the supplied foil paper card holder and place the holder in a metal business card case. That seems secure to me but I don't really know.

For my passport, I put it in a leather passport holder. Inside the holder, I insert a somewhat large piece of aluminum foil that is folded to fit the passport holder. That results in 3 layers of aluminum foil in the back of the passport and 2-3 layers in the front of the passport.

I am not too concerned (but maybe I should be). I simply put the foil to be different.