What if a terrorist were to develop a RFID-enabled land mine tuned to the frequency of an American passport when it came in proximity? Could it detonate an explosive?
It was the question raised by Kevin Mahaffey, a director of software development at Flexilis in the Black Hat Security Conference.
Mahaffey demonstrated how the RFID enabled passport, which the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is about to issue this year possesses inevitable security risk.
Mahaffey and his colleagues presented a passport attached with RFID tag and placed a small explosive charge nearby. The passport is about half-inch open. It can be put in pocket or purse. Mahaffey proved how the explosion could be occurred when the passport came within a foot of it. See the video for better understanding.
John Hering, director of Flexilis stated,
The government has taken great steps in securing the passport, but our one fundamental concern is that the shielding technology is inadequate.
The demonstration shows that tags used in the passports can be easily read by terrorists, even though metallic shielding in the passport.
The US government’s e-passport idea gets a big blow with this demonstration. The State Department should bring basic changes in the passports.
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