RFID feared as possible terrorist target

As if RFID chips in driver's licenses and passports weren't scary enough already, London's Royal Academy of Engineering is suggesting that someday a terrorist will be able to read personal biometric details from a distance. It also says given the right antennas and amplification, they may be able to set a bomb to go off when a particular person gets within range, reports eWeek.com.

It's already widely acknowledged that unencrypted data stored on an RFID chip in a passport can be read covertly by anybody with a pass-by reader. With a reader, you can pick up whatever the RFID chip is sending out: passport number; name; where an individual was at, at what time; name; address; Social Security number, etc.

The e-Passport, as it's called, uses facial recognition to link an individual with a paper passport, with iris and fingerprint data used as backup, and other countries have expressed interest in using biometrics as well. Because the data will be read at places such as passport control to verify the identity of the holder, the data have to be quickly and reliably transmitted - hence, use of RFID chips has been proposed. A forged passport could include a passport carrier's biometric information but with forged personal details, including name, date of birth and citizenship.

The Irish Information Commissioner's Office has come down on the notion of school fingerprinting and taken early action to prevent the technology being deployed arbitrarily, says Electricnews.net. It has told the first handful of Irish schools known to be establishing biometric systems that they ought to have a good reason for doing so and has said it will use its powers to order schools to rip out systems it considers excessive.

In its guidance for schools issued this month, the office indicated that it might not approve of schools fingerprinting pupils. It said it wasn't necessary in Irish law for them to do so, and if it wasn't necessary then the Data Protection Act said it shouldn't be done.

"There are several long-established and successful alternative methods of recording student attendance at schools which do not require the processing of a student's sensitive personal data," added the guidance, which took a similar stance to that of the Hong Kong Privacy Commissioner.

iPod mugging has become one of the top crimes de nos jours, but despair not, worried teen victim - the Tony Blair crime policy legacy is poised to come to your rescue, with fingerprint activation of MP3 players, reports The Register.

The suggestion makes a brief appearance in the second of Blair's policy reviews, Building on Progress: Security, Crime and Justice, published this week, as an example of how crime can be 'designed out' of products.

The UK government proposes, the review says, to "Work in partnership with businesses to crime-proof their products, services and processes to the highest standards. One example could be introducing fingerprint activation of MP3 players."

Davenport Univeristy in Michigan, US, has started offering a degree in biometric security, reports Timesdispatch.com.

About 55 students are enrolled in either the two- or four-year biometric security degree programmes at Davenport, a 141-year-old school of 13 500 students.

Biometric security, which identifies people based on unique personal characteristics, has become more common since the September 11 attacks. Government agencies and private businesses are investing in biometric devices that grant or block access after scanning fingerprints, eyes, facial features or vocal patterns. The industry has grown from barely $300 million in 2001 to more than $2 billion last year.