[LINK] Industry Reply on e-Passport Cloning

[Irene Graham]

On Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:16:22 +1000, Geoffrey Ramadan wrote:

> 2) Also the passport has in a metal thread embedded into one of the
> pages (forming a ground plane). If the e-Passport is closed, it would
> be impossible to read.

It's my understanding (from phone discussion with a DFAT senior rep) that 
the Australian e-passport does not have a wire thread or wire mesh, and 
that it does not because the Aust Govt decided that was not necessary 
because they were implementing ICAO specified "Basic Access Control" (BAC), 
which means the data on the chip is encrypted and the data stream between 
chip and a reader is encrypted. 

The wire mesh idea has never been a component of the ICAO specs.

At the time the US govt decided to use wire mesh in the cover of their 
e-passport, they were not intending to implement BAC, which would have 
meant there would be a risk of clear text being remotely skimmed from the 
chip when it was closed or open. If I recall correctly I read somewhere 
that since then the US govt decided to also implement BAC, most probably 
because of ongoing concerns/criticism that wire mesh would not stop remote 
skimming from a passport that was open. If they had planned to implement 
BAC in first place, I doubt wire mesh would ever have got into the 
equation.

Irene