Re: U.S. seeks OSCE pact on biometric passports

[David Honig]

At 04:50 PM 9/2/03 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>Anyone have any pointers to non destructive methods of rendering Smart
>Chips unreadable?  Just curious.
>
>DCF

Perhaps I'm being dense but how could this be non-destructive? 

Do you mean "non-obvious"?   Or "reversible"?

If the usual microwave games don't apply, perhaps sufficient
acceleration or ionic fluids would work.  Thermal stress
for the liquid nitrogen folks?  The flash unit from
a $4 disposable camera does a nice job of vaporizing a spot of 
metal from a coin or screwdriver shorting the cap.

Do any europeans have experience leaving smartcards in the laundry?

One question would be how to discretely test/verify the new read-not mode :-)







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RE: U.S. seeks OSCE pact on biometric passports

[Trei, Peter]

> Duncan Frissell[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> 
> Anyone have any pointers to non destructive methods of rendering Smart
> Chips unreadable?  Just curious.
> 
> 
> On Mon, 1 Sep 2003, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> 
> >
>  r>
> >
> > The Washington Times
> > www.washingtontimes.com
> >
> > U.S. seeks OSCE pact on biometric passports
> > By Nicholas Kralev
> > Published September 1, 2003
[snip]

Non-destructive, yet unreadable? Seems an odd
requirement. I suppose a dab of clear nail polish on
the contacts might work. 

Peter Trei


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Re: U.S. seeks OSCE pact on biometric passports

[Duncan Frissell]

Anyone have any pointers to non destructive methods of rendering Smart
Chips unreadable?  Just curious.

DCF

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003, R. A. Hettinga wrote:

> 
>
> The Washington Times
> www.washingtontimes.com
>
> U.S. seeks OSCE pact on biometric passports
> By Nicholas Kralev
> Published September 1, 2003
>
>
> VIENNA, Austria - The United States, seeking to keep out terrorists and other 
> criminals, this week begins a major diplomatic effort to persuade 54 nations to 
> adopt biometric standards when issuing passports to their citizens.
> Those standards, regulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization, 
> require every passport to have a machine-readable chip containing the owner's 
> digital photo, which is protected by a digital signature.
> The Bush administration, hoping to minimize the complexity of negotiating 
> separate bilateral agreements with all countries in the world, plans to start with a 
> multilateral accord among the 55 members of the Organization for Security and 
> Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), U.S. diplomats said.
> "It's a significant logistical job," Stephen M. Menekes, the U.S. ambassador to 
> the Vienna, Austria-based organization, said in an interview. "But it's here, all in 
> place, ready to be used."
> Mr. Menekes said J. Cofer Black, the State Department's coordinator for 
> counterterrorism, "had the idea" when he attended an OSCE conference in June, "and 
> he walked out of here convinced that this was the way to go."
> U.S. diplomats say they hope to sign an agreement at the Dec. 1-2 annual OSCE 
> ministerial meeting in the Dutch city of Maastricht, which would give the event a 
> sufficiently high profile to guarantee the presence of Secretary of State Colin L. 
> Powell. Mr. Powell skipped the meeting last year because of more pressing 
> responsibilities.
> "What we are hopeful is to get a decision at the ministerial that all states 
> will commit to at least begin issuing passports with biometric data by December 
> 2005," said Katherine Brucker, a political officer at the U.S. mission to the OSCE.
> She noted that 21 of the OSCE members - most of them European Union states - are 
> on the Visa Waiver program, which allows their citizens to enter the United States 
> for short periods without first obtaining a visa at an American consulate overseas.
> "They will be obligated to start issuing biometric passports by Oct. 26, 2004, 
> if they want to stay in the program," she said. "They already said it's moving in 
> this direction."
> In a paper to its fellow OSCE members outlining its proposal, the United States 
> said that "restricting the movement of terrorists and organized criminals is 
> imperative" in the global fight against terror.
> "The ability of criminals to forge travel documents - or to falsely obtain 
> genuine ones - remains a serious and ongoing problem," says the document, a copy of 
> which was given to The Washington Times.
> "Harmonized travel document security measures and features among OSCE 
> participating states would greatly enhance security throughout our region. More 
> effective and harmonized issuance standards and controls, combined with 
> bearer-specific security features, would greatly inhibit the movement of 
> terrorists," it says.
> The Bush administration has been repeatedly accused abroad - particularly in 
> Europe - of pursuing a unilateral foreign policy and bullying other nations into 
> submitting to its wishes.
> But Miss Brucker said the administration is "trying to identify ways a large 
> multinational organization can actually do something useful in the war on terror," 
> as in the case of OSCE.
> "We've actually been quite successful," she said. "The OSCE operates on 
> consensus, and its decisions are only politically - not legally - binding, but 
> countries do take them seriously."
> Soon after the September 11 attacks in 2001, the OSCE pledged to "prevent the 
> movement of terrorist individuals or groups through effective border controls and 
> controls on issuance of identity papers and travel documents, as well as through 
> measures for ensuring the security of identity papers and travel documents and 
> preventing their counterfeiting, forgery or fraudulent use."
>
>
>
>
> Copyright © 2003 News World Communications,  Inc. All rights 
> reserved.
> Return to the article
>
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> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation 
> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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