Digital passports

by **Pip** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 2:22 pm

How do you feel about your phone/tablet doubling as your passport?

"t was only a matter of time: boarding passes have had a digital option for some time now and credit/debit cards are becoming increasingly digitized with ApplePay and other similar services.

Now the world’s largest passport printer, De La Rue, is working on the tech that could store your passport on your phone.

Questions are already being asked over the security of a digital passport but De La Rue assure the doubters that security will be top priority but the project is in the “very early stages of development.”

Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, believes that a digital passport is the natural next step for the classic burgundy booklet but security has to be the most important aspect from the start.

“As with all transitions from physical to digital security is of paramount importance: the idea of stealing your identity is a real concern and rightly so.

“Passports have always been the definitive means to identify you, holding not only your visual likeness but also the capabilities of storing digital information in the background.

“The idea of going to a full digital option will certainly ring some alarm bells for many but I think it’s a natural progression and with the right security measures in place could be the answer.

“The question is of course how secure will this data be? With so much of our daily lives being stored in the cloud how much of a problem is it that one more item joins it?

“Our phones have become so much more than a voice communication device. The ability to pay for many things with biometric authentication or store your boarding pass for airline flights leads the way to other services being available.”

Is this a step too far or do you trust everything to be secure?

The following user would like to thank Pip for this post
BajeeZa, chouette, ctaulbee

by **ctaulbee** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 2:40 pm

Pip wrote:... do you trust everything to be secure?

No

by **Pip** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:40 pm

ctaulbee wrote:
Pip wrote:... do you trust everything to be secure?

No

So you are as sensible as I am then.

by **ctaulbee** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 4:02 pm

Yeah there are limits to Digital Security, with something like this there is no need to break the security, which in my view in and of itself is a issue because all one needs to do it figure out a way to "transport" the existing data bit by bit to a new device which is far easier to do than actually decoding it, then effectively you have a duplicate, which in the case of something like this would be the goal.

If they try to tie it to devices, for example linking the security to device serial numbers or something silly like that then there would have to be a database somewhere to keep up with all that have it available for the end users doing the verification's and so that becomes a new security hole as storing that info in the device defeats the whole reason for doing it, security is a very tricky thing.

In the old days people just copied things, took a degree of talent but high quality counterfeit money for example and other things are a testament to what can be done given the right talent and time.

Digital just makes that kind of thing easier, for the right person with the right skills.

by **Wrench** » Tue Apr 19, 2016 11:12 pm

It would also mean that one would have to have a smart phone.
A cell phone is just that a portable phone. Not a camera, not to surf the internet, but to make a phone call when there is no land line around.
Yes I have one only because it was cheaper to get a smart phone than a flip phone.
I use it as a phone. Not a camera, not to surf the net, not to text all day, but a phone.
I use my starbucks card not my phone to buy coffee, wife put the app on for me.

Short answer NO :Evil

by **Pip** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:20 am

mywrench wrote:It would also mean that one would have to have a smart phone.
A cell phone is just that a portable phone. Not a camera, not to surf the internet, but to make a phone call when there is no land line around.
Yes I have one only because it was cheaper to get a smart phone than a flip phone.
I use it as a phone. Not a camera, not to surf the net, not to text all day, but a phone.
I use my starbucks card not my phone to buy coffee, wife put the app on for me.

Short answer NO

Matters not what you use your smartphone for the open door exists. I do pentesting as a hobby (customer side) and advise those I've hacked on how to secure their networks. Getting info off a smartphone or Ipad is even easier. I could just walk past you and the info would have been scanned and I would crack the encription at my leisure.

Ayone with criminal intent would have a cloud server running multiple GPU's (think Amazon) and be able to do it quickly.

I trust nothing digital and never have done. Just check out the Kali Linux site and forums. Yes- you'll see my presecnce there.

by **ctaulbee** » Wed Apr 20, 2016 12:50 am

Could not agree more

by **VincentLupo** » Fri Apr 22, 2016 2:55 am

Think you've all nailed it.

by **Fogdude** » Wed Jun 15, 2016 11:00 pm

Walking around with your entire digital profile on a smart phone is like walking through a prison yard wearing lipstick & your pants around your knees.

by **VincentLupo** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:08 am

Well said Fog.

by **ctaulbee** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:28 am

Fogdude wrote:Walking around with your entire digital profile on a smart phone is like walking through a prison yard wearing lipstick & your pants around your knees.

There would not be much "walking" in that scenario... :Scared

by **chouette** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:03 am

ctaulbee wrote:
Fogdude wrote:Walking around with your entire digital profile on a smart phone is like walking through a prison yard wearing lipstick & your pants around your knees.

There would not be much "walking" in that scenario...