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NPR:
In Sweden, a country rich with technological advancement, thousands have had microchips inserted into their hands.
The chips are designed to speed up users' daily routines and make their lives more convenient — accessing their homes, offices and gyms is as easy as swiping their hands against digital readers.
They also can be used to store emergency contact details, social media profiles or e-tickets for events and rail journeys within Sweden.
Would you place the implant in your thumb, pointer finger, or middle finger?
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Thousands Of Swedes Are Inserting Microchips Under Their Skin
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(Score: 2) by exaeta on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:04AM (12 children)
These chips aren't easily stolen, so they could provide some rather good security. Possibly better than a fingerprint scanner, and could be made cryptographically secure.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 3, Informative) by Virindi on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:11AM (3 children)
It's better than a fingerprint because if it is compromised, you can replace it. Might be nice to be able to change crypto keys noninvasively though.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:47AM (1 child)
Well, you actually can. It's simple and requires only an one-off surgical operation.
Afterwards, you place the implanted chip in your prosthetic finger which you can replace at any moment
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:12PM
Remember this? https://mashable.com/2017/07/06/third-thumb-prosthetic/?europe=true [mashable.com]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:06PM
But the fingerprint should still be required in conjunction with the chip.
The fingerprint is a User ID.
The chip is the Password.
You can't change your User ID, but you can change your password.
This is also 2 factors. Something you are and something you have (which is not easily lost, stolen or eaten).
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:19AM (2 children)
It just raises stealing to a new level. Ever heard of choppers, wire-cutters?
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:09PM (1 child)
If the thief cannot resist the urge to eat the severed appendage prior to extracting the chip, then they never get around to using the chip.
It's true.
Jeffry Dahmer gives this post five thumbs up
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:04PM
Jeffry brought new meaning to the phrase "Finger licking good"
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:06AM (2 children)
Stolen?, maybe not, but search on RFID Zapper EMP, It wouldn't be that hard to build a transmitter capable of generating high wattage pulses at 13.56MHz, I'm assuming that as far as these implants are concerned 50-100W at close range would not be a good thing to be on the receiving end of.
Search on NFC security, then consider the number of places you can surreptitiously install a NFC reader to interrogate these hand implants
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday November 12 2018, @03:13PM
There's no theoretical reason a hand chip has to use an insecure method like that. I'd be surprised if it didn't, but this could in theory be a path worth looking at.
That being said, standard NFC gear is definitely not secure. The chip needs to do cryptographic signing to be secure, and even then, needs a proximity limiter and something that times the response, making sure it responds within a time period with an event horizon which guarantees some maximum distance between the chip and the reader.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday November 12 2018, @03:28PM
To further elaborate, while I don't disagree that a standard chip will be insecure, it could be made secure by doing the following:
Thus assuming the cryptographic primitive is not broken and the signing key is not stolen, we can prove by the laws of special relativity that the chip is within an arbitrary distance of the reader.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:51PM (1 child)
I wonder if they somewhat easily could be read and cloned onto another chip. That could be entertaining if said chip is the only security feature used and you just got yourself an instant double that can't be told apart from you since your only security feature is a chip you implanted into your hand.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday November 12 2018, @03:11PM
That's a good question. But in theory, if the chip is designed to communicate and cryptographically sign messages, this could be made nearly impossible. Of course it wouldn't stop someone from chopping up your hand to get at the chip, or someday breaking the algorithm (which presumably would require surgery to update).
I would wonder how power would get to the chip though to power it up to do cryptographic signing. Maybe an inductive coil? But I'm curious how voltage regulation here would work. I assume it'd be a linear regulator as I don't think there'd be enough room for a buck converter in the chip. So it could get hot? But maybe if only used briefly that wouldn't be a problem.
Probably this chip is less secure, but there's no reason in theory why the chip couldn't do ed25519 signing or something of that nature, which would make it rather hard to crack.
The Government is a Bird