Electronic Passports Hacked Within Minutes, Engineer Says
August 7, 2008 by JR Raphael |

They’re billed as an international security solution, but the high-tech
electronic passports developed after 9/11 may be easier to forge than
their ink-and-paper counterparts.

The passports, issued by the U.S. and 44 other countries, feature
embedded microchips that contain the owner’s data. They were designed to
boost protection against identity fraud and, ultimately, terrorism. Now,
though, a British computer engineer says he’s found a way to clone the
chips, modify the data, and turn them into fake identities — all within
a matter of minutes.

The discovery comes from a set of tests commissioned by The Times. The
paper had the engineer copy two British passports, then switch out the
real owners’ photos with ones of Osama bin Laden and a female suicide
bomber. The hacked chips were then tested with the same software used to
validate the passports at airport security checkpoints — and they passed.

The finding is a stark contrast to the government’s claims that the
chips are foolproof: