Microchips in e-passports easily forged
to be planted inside fake or stolen paper passports. A baby boy’s passport chip was altered to contain an image of Osama bin Laden, and the passport of a 36-year-old woman was changed to feature a picture of Hiba Darghmeh, a Palestinian suicide bomber who killed three people in 2003. The unlikely identities were chosen so that there could be no suggestion that either van Beek or the Times was faking viable travel documents. “We’re not claiming that terrorists are able to do this to all passports today or that they will be able to do it tomorrow,” van Beek said. “But it does raise concerns over security that need to be addressed in a more public and open way.” Boggan points out that the ability to clone chips leaves travellers vulnerable to identity theft when they surrender their passports at hotels or car rental companies. Criminals in the back office could read the chips and clone them. The original passport holder’s name and date of birth could be left on the fake chip, with the picture, fingerprints, and other biometric data of a criminal client added. The criminal could then travel the world using the stolen identity and the original passport holder would be none the wiser.
The Times’s tests must be disheartening to supporters of the U.K. government’s £4 billion identity card scheme, which relies on the same biometric technology tested by the newspaper. ID cards are expected to contain similar microchips that will store up to fifty pieces of personal and biometric information about their holders. Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Home Secretary, called on ministers to take urgent action to remedy the security flaws discovered by the Times. “It is of deep concern that the technology underpinning a key part of the U.K.’s security can be compromised so easily,” he said. The Home Office said it had yet to see evidence of someone being able to manipulate data in an e-passport. A spokesman said: “No one has yet been able to demonstrate that they are able to modify, change or alter data within the chip. If any data were to be changed, modified or altered it would be immediately obvious to the electronic reader.” The International Civil Aviation Organization said: “The PKD ensures that e-passports used at border control points … are genuine and unaltered. In effect it renders the passport fool-proof. However, all states issuing e-passports must join the PKD, otherwise that assurance cannot be given.”
