How to Forge Electronic Passports

by mins0306 on October 24, 2007

On the eve of talks between the US and the ROK regarding the Visa Waiver Program, someone has uploaded a BBC World video clip in Youtube which shows how easy it is to forge electronic passports. And with Korean subtitles to boot.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

1 SomeguyinKorea October 24, 2007 at 4:14 pm: It shouldn’t be a surprise that it’s not that difficult to do. If it can be read, it can also be written on a blank chip. I think the technology has moved on, though. Don’t they use or talk about using facial recognition software at airports?
2 SomeguyinKorea October 24, 2007 at 4:18 pm: Oh, and the lesson to be learned is not that the passports aren’t as safe as you thought they were, but rather how the problem will be corrected. As the last person said, you wouldn’t want to create a huge all-encompassing infrastructure of electronic data that could become vulnerable to theft.
3 Maddlew October 24, 2007 at 11:57 pm: Since the US government is having so much trouble issuing the new passports and how easy it seems to be for the criminals, perhaps some sub-contracting to the underworld should be considered.
4 SomeguyinKorea October 25, 2007 at 11:26 am: #3,

I would come with a warning label that would state that if you are caught making forged passports, “We’ll go medieval on you”.