Hacking Implanted Chips

I watched some type of show, news type show, and they were "hacking" into I believe rfid chips in passports and showing how "easy" it was.

I can't remember the details, but I don't believe they were able to actually change any information just access it and download it, though if you could access it you could find a way to change it. I believe they were using some type of reader attached to a laptop and said they couldn't read one from more than 20 ft. away.

It shouldn't take a hard search to find that relevant information.

Cloning an rfid chip

Newitz said she has an RFID chip implanted in her right arm manufactured by VeriChip Corp., a subsidiary of Applied Digital. “Their Web site claims that it cannot be counterfeited — that is something that Jonathan and I have shown to be untrue.” The pair demonstrated the cloning process: Westhues held a standard RFID reader against Newitz’s arm to register the chip’s unique identification number. Next, Westhues used a home-built antenna connected to his laptop to read Newitz’s arm again and record the signal off her implanted chip.

Would you mean like this? I think this is a pretty good argument against them.

[edit on 13-11-2009 by Seiko]

Here we go. This is is the point, from the birthplace of HiTech - Palo Alto - cloning an RFID badge in seconds. It's not changing the info, but it's a step in the right direction, it means INSECURE and if its insecure, it's half a stop.

Heres some links.

The RFID Hacking Underground

James Van Bokkelen is about to be robbed. A wealthy software entrepreneur, Van Bokkelen will be the latest victim of some punk with a laptop. But this won't be an email scam or bank account hack. A skinny 23-year-old named Jonathan Westhues plans to use a cheap, homemade USB device to swipe the office key out of Van Bokkelen's back pocket.

"I just need to bump into James and get my hand within a few inches of him," Westhues says. We're shivering in the early spring air outside the offices of Sandstorm, the Internet security company Van Bokkelen runs north of Boston. As Van Bokkelen approaches from the parking lot, Westhues brushes past him. A coil of copper wire flashes briefly in Westhues' palm, then disappears.

Van Bokkelen enters the building, and Westhues returns to me. "Let's see if I've got his keys," he says, meaning the signal from Van Bokkelen's smartcard badge. The card contains an RFID sensor chip, which emits a short burst of radio waves when activated by the reader next to Sandstorm's door. If the signal translates into an authorized ID number, the door unlocks.

Scan this guy's E Passport and watch your system crash

A German security researcher who demonstrated last year that he could clone the computer chip in an electronic passport has revealed additional vulnerabilities in the design of the new documents and the inspection systems used to read them.

Lukas Grunwald, an RFID expert who has served as an e-passport consultant to the German parliament, says the security flaws allow someone to seize and clone the fingerprint image stored on the biometric e-passport, and to create a specially coded chip that attacks e-passport readers that attempt to scan it.

Grunwald says he's succeeded in sabotaging two passport readers made by different vendors by cloning a passport chip, then modifying the JPEG2000 image file containing the passport photo. Reading the modified image crashed the readers, which suggests they could be vulnerable to a code-injection exploit that might, for example, reprogram a reader to approve expired or forged passports.

Faking passport RFID chips for $120

Forged passports may seem like the stuff of spy novels, but they have appeared in the real world, having been used by individuals who went on to take part in terrorist attacks. To add a layer of security that goes beyond what's printed on the page, many nations are adopting passports with an RFID chip that contains a duplicate of the printed information, secured by encryption. A security researcher hired by a British newspaper has now shown that it's possible to replace the data in the RFID chip, and the lack of international cooperation in the sharing of encryption information may mean the hack goes undetected in many places.

The basics behind the RFID scheme are pretty simple. Passports contain printed copies of a personal photo and key biometric information, such as height, date of birth, etc. With the right equipment and blank passports, it's possible to forge these printed materials. RFID chips embedded in the passports are intended to help detect these forgeries, as they carry a duplicate of this information—if the two don't match, then the forgery should be obvious. (The US State Department maintains an FAQ addressing this technology.)

Of course, it's entirely possible to forge an RFID chip, which is precisely what a security researcher in Amsterdam did at the request of The Times. Jeroen van Beek of the University of Amsterdam was given two valid passports that contained RFID chips. Using an $80 RFID reader, van Beek was able to obtain a copy of all the biometric data, substitute arbitrary values for each of the fields, then write the modified data back out to a separate $40 RFID chip. The Times reports that the process took about an hour. In an amusing twist—and to avoid charges that they were actually engaged in illegal forgery—van Beek uploaded Osama bin Laden's vitals onto the blank RFID chip.

RFID passport hack has scanner seeing visions Elvis

Back in August, a security researcher named Jeroen van Beek demonstrated a method for manipulating information in the RFID tags used in recent passports; more details of the process were discussed at the Black Hat conference held in Las Vegas that month. Now, a member of the group The Hacker's Choice (THC) has built on that knowledge to describe how anyone can use some free software and cheap hardware to manipulate the personal data on a passport RFID tag. The hack comes accompanied by a video showing a machine in Amsterdam's airport reading Elvis Presley's personal information off a hacked chip.

The process, as described by someone going with the handle VonJeek, is pretty straightforward. Software that emulates passport RFID behavior, apparently written by van Beek, is uploaded onto a blank card. Using a free Python application, an existing passport's chip is read and the data transferred to the emulator. In the process, the bits that call for active verification of the encoded information can be shut off, limiting the verification process when the card is read in the future. Instructions for modifying the information prior to uploading it are also provided.

The instructions come with a video of the hacked card in action at the Amsterdam airport. At a self-service boarding pass machine, the hacker slipped the modified RFID card into his passport, and placed it in a scanning device. Up popped Elvis on the screen. Ars' man near Amsterdam, Chris Lee, indicated that this wouldn't get anyone past security—it simply saves waiting in line for manual check-in—but it is a clear indication that the hack was functional as far as the RFID readers were concerned.

reply to post by Seiko


Excellent Seiko, you're a soldier and a scholar. Keep up the good work.

The best hack is self awareness. There is as yet not a good way to explain this.

But I have done it. At much personal cost.

It has to get easier for subsequence. But keep in mind that the point is for us to recognize societal responsibility.

It's important.

reply to post by ThaLoccster


Fantastic work ThaLoccster - I applaud you and bow for your accomplishment.

Originally posted by FortAnthem

I've heard that once you're chipped, anyone with the proper equipment could read your information without your knowledge, just by you walking near them.
Think of the possibiltites for Identity Theft!

As bad as that would be, the ramifications of this 'tagging' would be even worse.

They would be able to track you EVERYWHERE. So what would that mean if you had to become a survivalist? You wouldn't be able to get away!

Originally posted by ShadowEyes

Originally posted by FortAnthem

I've heard that once you're chipped, anyone with the proper equipment could read your information without your knowledge, just by you walking near them.
Think of the possibiltites for Identity Theft!

As bad as that would be, the ramifications of this 'tagging' would be even worse.

They would be able to track you EVERYWHERE. So what would that mean if you had to become a survivalist? You wouldn't be able to get away!

Right On! - That's why we have to address this from two different things - knocking it out, and hacking it. It's kind of freaky, 10 years ago this would have sounded like "The Matrix", 20 years ago people would be telling us we were insane... What would people have been willing to accept 1 year ago? How about 1 month ago?

There does seem to be a Quickening going on, and that's why we really don't have much time.

reply to post by factbeforefiction


I think it won't be ONE chip, it will be thousands of nano chips ingested from numerous different means. Literally permanent residents in our fat, muscle, and blood.

If they transpond then they likely receive so everytime you show your ID "they" rebroadcast a confirmation to your new lil friends.



[edit on 14-11-2009 by notreallyalive]

This technology is in an early stages; when it comes to software and deadlines nothing sustained can be achieved that will represent a secure or stable product.

There are ways to protect this technology, full proof literally, just like it is extremely difficult to hack a high 256bit encryption.

[edit on 11/14/2009 by krystalice]

I don't think you need to worry about hacking a chip. It will not be mandatory, yet. They know a lot of people are fundamentaly against this, so they are starting this slowly for the next generation(s).

i think chipping serial crimanals and pedo's would be a very good idea ... maybe children to for obvious reasons .... but if a pedo coould just come here and read how to hack his / her chip then maybe its not a good idea to give them ideas on how to hack it ...

i think it will start with the above then move on over to the genral public .......

I like this site their are many itilligent people rare is this in the rest of the world

The hacking would not be done to the chip.

You read the chip - it's just the carrier for an account number.

Any hacking that took place would be against the networks where the information is stored. Pretty much like trying to hack into a bank or social security network.

So you need to learn as much as you can about networks, network security. Learn some programming languages. Learn how to use unix.

Here's a good starting point...

www.hackthissite.org

Get your kids and their kids to learn as much about hacking as possible because it's them that this lot is really going to affect!

reply to post by factbeforefiction


The same technology is already implemented for tracking pets and livestock. Here are the steps:

1. Get your pet "chipped".
2. Aquire a new/used RFID chip reader Used IMAX chip reader
3. Invite your fellow-ATS computer scientist/hacker/engineer over for pizza and beer and start hacking

Thoughts: My initial hunch is that strong magnets (neodymium) might just wipe out the chip itself... as the warning for these magnets says "Can damage computer gear and credit cards"

I think they will chipp the population but they will also see that we really want it. Using MSM (problem reaction solution D I) we will ask to be chipped, we will be greatfull we will BEGG for the chip...there is no need for any conspiracy.
And if you and i dont have it (WE WONT) they will not care, they dont need us to, we are the stupid ones they will say, they ridicule us..there will be a moovement oposing the chip but that moovement will fade away just like the antiwar moovements have done.
We wont want to hack the chip, we would loose so much.
Can anyone make a list of al the good things about the chip they will use on msm to make this happen? Like healthcare, all kind of monetary transactions, crime, ensurance, work monitoring...what else? We (they, the ignorant 90% majority) will say PLEEEEASE chip me! And you the hcaker will be the criminal, you go to jail man..baaad boy!

This is why i question D I and all this vaccination scam theory, they dont need to do so much, no need to force us..they dont need to! They have all nesessary tools they ever need. It is an easy task, remember they work in perspectives of decades at least. I say it takes only one or two decades at the most and we all are beeing chipped from birth. VERY VERY EASY TASK!

I see only one reason for this to not bee allready released. They need to secure it, hook it to your DNA or something..it will not be hackable it will be a 100% biotech solution. Fingerprint, voice and eye matching your chip..control stations all over the city, wal mart, all shoppingcenters, transportation and so on..it will be 100% "safe"

[edit on 14-11-2009 by gusan]

[edit on 14-11-2009 by gusan]

[edit on 14-11-2009 by gusan]

reply to post by Seiko


Lead bracelets anyone?

Just cover the area that the thing was implanted in, and it should block the signal...woven lead/foil torque rings for sale...roll up, roll up.

reply to post by TaintedJustice


Oh yeah, right!

Let's avoid fighting the issue of whole population being tagged and chipped and treated as farm animals, *just in case* a few undesirables learn to hack the chip?!

Grow up.

reply to post by notreallyalive


Thousands of nano scale transponders will be a problem to get around.

Unless you want to walk around in a foil suit all day long of course.