Build Date: Thu Nov 6 23:10:38 2025 UTC
This is the problem with today's generation of computer geeks. Nobody remembers how to go to Radio Shack and buy 500 blinking LEDs for four dollars.
-- P A U L
Passport Insecurity
2006-02-20 17:33:57
With the growing identity theft problem in the United States, why is the government moving ahead with a technology that gives identity thieves another way to steal your personal data and allows terrorists to pick individual Americans out of crowds?
The Department of Homeland Security wants every American passport to include an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag identifying the person carrying the passport. The Dutch are introducing passports with the same technology, but when a Dutch television news program put the technology to the test they were able to intercept the passport data at a distance and crack the encryption scheme on a home PC in a few hours.
California driver's licenses have been magstrip-coded for years, and if Homeland Security's idea was to speed up U.S. Customs checkpoints a magstrip would have worked just fine, and it has the advantage of not being scannable from 30 feet away.
But wait! There's more! Although cracking the encryption could take an hour or two, you can get a unique RFID signature from a passport instantly. If you collect a database of signatures and crack them when you have time, you can later identify an individual passing by instantly with just the signature. Now when Americans travel abroad, technologically-inclined terrorists can scan a crowd and PICK OUT THE AMERICANS by scanning their passports remotely. Car bombs and improvised roadside mines could be modified to explode when a particular individual passes by. Why should a terrorist waste ammo blowing up a Halliburton rent-a-cop shuttling MREs around Baghdad when by simply checking the RFID signature they can target and take out high-ranking U.S. officials?
I still can't figure out what in hell the Department of Homeland Security is thinking. Using RFIDs for ID purposes is an insanely bad idea.
T O P S T O R I E S
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
It was early in May last year when I first heard about Spock Mountain Research Labs. I was working on a story about a Hungarian scientist's new approach to nucleopeptide synthesis when I got a call from my friend Albert. (More...)
Brother Wayne Lays Down the Truth
Flesh interviews Wayne Kramer of MC5. (More...)
Still Up For the Party? America's Dance Floors Are Graying
Raving over 30 doesn't have to be embarassing anymore. (More...)
Paranoid Strippers & Psychotic Crack Dealers (Tales of Christmas Eve)
Christmas day, for the last 17 or so years has bored me. I find that the real fun and excitement always takes place on Christmas Eve. Every other year, it's the excitement of the metaphorical hunt instead of the kill. Otherwise, it's just plain bad craziness. (More...)
During a magnificent sunny day in a fast receding autumn, the Spock Science Monitor reporters once again blew the playa dust off of their computers and covered the 2002 Burning Man Decompression – held every year just east of Portola Hill in beautiful San Francisco. Both an afternoon and evening issues were released to the unsuspecting crowd of freaks attempting to in some small way experience the euphoria of the playa – if but for a brief afternoon far from the desolation of Northern Nevada. (More...)
Clowns Take on God in Mysterious Annual Ceremony
Last Sunday's (the 6th) Grimaldi Service at a small church in East London was a red-letter day for clowns worldwide. About a hundred old-school red-nosed clowns made the sombre trip to darkest Dalston to pay their respects to clowns who died in the last year and to thank God for the gift of laughter in a bizarre ceremony presided over by the eccentric Reverend Clown Roly, resplendent in a garish red lumberjack shirt with oversized gold lapels. (More...)
