myID have your biometric passport covered

By Tola Onanuga on July 20, 2010 9:00 AM

When you travel abroad, your passport is by far your most valuable asset. And with the rise of identity theft, not to mention all manner of sophisticated cloning techniques, passport safety is serious business.

A simple holder to pop it into will keep it secure – but where’s the glamour? After all, there’s no point going to the bother of colour co-ordinating your designer luggage to match your designer outfit, only to be let down by your accessories. Fear not. If you can travel in style, so can your passport, as myID have created a range of covers that blend fashion with functionality.

Available in two styles, the £19.99 Executive cover is made from super-soft black leather and comes packaged in a gift box. It is designed with frequent flyers in mind. Alternatively, there’s the Traveller cover, made from faux brown leather and priced at a more affordable £11.99.

These sleek accessories are more than just mere fashion statements though. On a practical note, all passports issued within the UK since March 2006 contain biometric technology, meaning they feature a chip which contains information unique to the holder. This information can be read by fraudsters using easily-available Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

If your unique information is exposed, it could lead to cloning, theft and all sorts of other trouble. Worryingly, criminals don’t even need to be in possession of your passport for this to happen – they can read the information from a few metres away. However, myId are one step ahead of the fraudsters and have built RIFD-blocking technology into both covers. It is hidden in both the front and back of the casing for maximum protection.

So, if your priority is enjoying your holiday this summer, instead of worrying about your personal information falling into the wrong hands, myId’s multi-functional passport holders, with an added touch of glamour, will keep you on the right track.

Both myID passport covers are now available to order from www.itsmyid.co.uk.

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5 Comments

Raj says:

July 21, 2010 at 3:09 PM

Actually, this is not exactly true. The ‘chip’ information is encrypted and can only be read in conjuction with certain elements of the passport. The RFID chip type used is set at a specific frequency and can only be read within a few centimetres, so the ‘fraudster’ would require to be really close.
Tola Onanuga says:

July 21, 2010 at 6:12 PM

Thanks for your comment Raj. There are certainly differing
views on this. During my research I came across this interesting article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/17/news.homeaffairs in which experiments were carried
out by researchers as to the furthest distance
from which biometric passports could by read.
One such experiment found the passport could be read from 10 metres away & through two walls using an RFID reader. So
while it’s not necessarily the norm, this
would seem to confirm that it is actually possible to
read a passport’s encrypted chip from at least a few metres away.

Tola
Tola Onanuga says:

July 21, 2010 at 9:46 PM

Thanks for your comment Raj. There definitely seems to be some differing views on this. However, when I was doing my research I came across this interesting article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/nov/17/news.homeaffairs

Several experiments were carried out to determine the distance from which biometric passports could be read. One of the experiments showed that a passport could be read using a RFID reader from 10 metres away & also through two walls. So, although it may not be the norm, this does seem to show that it is at least possible for the encrypted chip to be read from some metres away.

Tola
Gareth says:

July 21, 2010 at 9:55 PM

Raj

There’s quite a few articles on the Register about how RFID tags can be hacked into from distance:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/30/dutch_biometric_passport_crack/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/10/fidis_budapest_mrtd_declaration/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/06/daily_mail_passport_clone/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/26/epassport_rfid_weakness/
Contactless Crime says:

January 19, 2011 at 1:38 PM

Raj raises a good point, and is are certainly correct in intimating that the jury remains out on this issue for the time being. That said, going forward is it not reasonable to suggest that those of a criminal disposition will become increasingly motivated by the prospects of a ‘contactless’ crime?

‘Chip and pin’ banking was launched on a promise that this system was 100% secure, a bold claim indeed and one that has been proven wrong on many occasions; not least with the publication of Omar Choudary’s PhD thesis by Cambridge University. Will RFID banking and e-passports be any different? No system is flawless.

Here’s the link: http://contactless.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/student-thesis-shows-how-chip-and-pin-banking-could-be-breached/

For more debate on this issue, one that is likely to move into the mainstream media before very long then you could do worse than visit:

http://www.contactless.wordpress.com