£105 kit can clone but not alter stored information
Personal Computer World, 07 Aug 2006
A German security expert has cracked the UK's new 'secure' biometric passport system using hardware worth just £105.
Lukas Grunwald told the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas that he has discovered a way to clone the personal information stored on the new UK passports. The data can then be transferred onto blank chips that can be used to create fake passports, he claimed.
The news is an alarming development for the Government, which has just spent £415m to transfer people’s personal details onto the new passports. The project has proved controversial from the start and continues to run into delays.
The Home Office has responded by claiming that the new passport is one of the most secure in the world and that, even though information can be cloned, it cannot be altered.
Grunwald said it took two weeks using cheap hardware to break the system, The Guardian reported.
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