Stall The Ball

No I’m not spamming

The new RFID passports are currently being issued and in typical Irish fashion we adopted an Irish solution to an Irish problem. The problem? Visa waivers in to the US were conditional on having an e-Passport as dictated by the US State department.
No problem with that in principle, it’s their country; they get to dictate standards to gain access to their country.

Where it all goes a bit pear shaped is when the Irish Government decided to ignore the fact that RFID passports could be cloned, copied and used without needing physical access to the passport. The US took account of this an embedded foil into their passports so that when the passport is closed the RFID is shielded reducing the chance of the chip being read.

The Irish solution? Irish passports are not using embedded foil.

Digital Rights Ireland has complained to the Department of Foreign Affairs about this but so far no answer. The Register pokes a bit of fun at DRI about fretting about terrorist attacks in the Sunday Times to boot.

So my major business opportunity? Start selling passport wallets with a foil lining similar to the inside of crisp bags (the ones that lock in freshness ). This business opportunity isn’t limited to just Ireland, expect many other countries to follow suit in the rush to get e-passports up and running with out thinking things through.

If you succeed in generating untold wealth and riches from this unique business opportunity I am willing to accept a small donation expressing your gratitude.

If you are not willing to buy one of these high quality leather like passport wallets, you could just wrap your e-passport in tin foil. So instead of Paddies emigrating with their sarnies wrapped in tin foil we’ll have Paddies emigrating with their e-passport wrapped in tin foil.

Progress is great isn’t it?