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ARE BIOMETRIC PASSPORTS REALLY SAFE?

London (UK). According to a recent survey carried out by the British newspaper The Guardian biometric technology would not be the right solution to all security-related problems. After September 11, due to the urgent need of more accurate controls new passports have appeared in many countries enabling deeper and more careful identification. The International Civil Aviation Organization’s recommendations concerned biometric information for face identification and for fingerprints if possible. Such data would be recorded in a RFID microchip which recorders also the passport number, its expiring date and the owner’s date of birth. A first weakness of this procedure is how the ICAO itself has openly revealed information about the code processing. Moreover, a 250 dollars reader is needed to gain access to the information stored in the chip. According to The Guardian, data can be decoded in a couple of days then they can be modified. The Guardian also states that the passport chip can be read at 7,5 cm distance from the reader, approximately the same distance as between a passport in our handbag or jacket and a passenger near us in the waiting room. According to Adam Laurie – one of The Guardian’s collaborators – the British Home Office had adopted a decoding technology called 3DES, i.e. an algorithm normally used in the military field. Although a reliable coding system is being used to avoid data interception between passport and reader, one of the basic principles of cryptography has been broken because the secret key is created on the basis of non secret information available on the passport. This is the same as installing a steel door for your house while leaving the key under the doormat. The British Home Office stated that despite data could be accessible, they cannot be neither modified nor added to others. However - as Luke Grunwald showed last September in Berlin – once the access to the RFID chip is gained the chip can be cloned. This could be extremely useful for those who try to enter illegally into a foreign country, like terrorists. Thus perhaps not even biometrics can guarantee safe passports.

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