QandO started off the year by reminding us of the joy of RFID’s:
Well, for the holders of [RFID-laden drivers licenses being trialed in four states], it means that someone within a 30 foot range with the proper monitoring equipment is privy to the information contained therein.
Information contained will include name, DOB, physical characteristics, and a private identity number that will allow access to further information stored in the state’s DMV database.
Now the semi-good news is that at the moment, in those four states, it’s a voluntary situation. You have to volunteer to allow the state to include the chip. And the way it is being sold is that travelers with those chips will be able to cross the border without a passport per Homeland Security.
So, anyone else noticed the flaw in this plan? Let’s say I’m a bad guy. And I have the proper monitoring equipment. And while you make a run to TJ for the day to grab some cheap whatever, I monitor and record your data? Yeah, you can figure out the rest. If the state can make these things so can the bad guys, and then, well, easy stuff to use it to penetrate border security without having to sprint across the Rio. Now you have a way of selling easy access to the US at a nice profit. And, given the info available on the chip, there’s the possibility financial mayhem available to monitoring criminals as well.
I’m actually slightly less concerned about this than QandO is. While I am uncomfortable with the idea of anyone — be they a bad guy, a government, or your regular evil corporation — being able to relatively easily accumulate data about my movements, my garments, etc., there are ways to at least partially combat that risk
Two items that trouble me more are:
- That potentially sensitive information could be accessible to anyone with the right code, read off the RFID chip, who happens to know which system to access. The networking of computers is a very potent development when it comes to business and national security, but it does introduce risks.
- That the public has such a lackadaisical attitude when it comes to privacy issues, and the government doesn’t seem to care. Us sheeple are being herded towards an authoritarian state.
At a minimum, I’d like to see laws/regulations amended, and/or best practices established, to permit consumers to be able to see who’s been accessing information about them when. While that doesn’t offer proactive security, it could at least fuel education and debate, as well as accelerate the rate at which any security lapses become known.