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posted by cmn32480 on Monday September 07 2015, @10:43AM   Printer-friendly
from the cut-off-a-hand-to-get-the-keys dept.

Punching in security codes to deactivate the alarm at his store became a thing of the past for Jowan Oesterlund when he implanted a chip into his hand about 18 months ago.

"When I walk into my studio, I just wave my hand at the alarm, and the alarm turns off," the tattoo artist said.

"Whenever someone shows up with security clearance, he will wave and the alarm is deactivated, the lights are turned on... it will start up the computer, the cash machine and so on," he added.

Oesterlund is one of the small but growing number of people around the world who has a grain-sized NFC (Near Field Communications) chip embedded in him.

In fact, so convinced is he that "this is the future" that he has two of them, one in his hand and the other in his arm.

"One year ago it was 'that's just stupid', or 'wow that's just awesome'. But now multinational companies are looking into it," he said, pointing to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky as an example.

The renowned cybersecurity company had brought in Oesterlund to carry out a live demonstration of chip implantation at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin which opens to the public Friday.

The nervous volunteer is Rainer Bock, who works at Kaspersky. After Oesterlund used a needle to put a chip under Bock's skin, the new member of the "cyborg" club said: "It didn't hurt."

With a memory of just 880 bytes, the chips are far from the science fiction equivalent of data powerhouses carrying billions of encrypted secret documents.

Rather, they tend to have specific functions, such as unlocking a door or hooking up to an app on a smartphone.

Despite the limited uses, human chip implant manufacturer Dangerous Things told AFP that there are now around 10,000 "cyborgs"—or humans with digital chips in them—across the globe.

Is this the future? No more car keys. No more remembering passwords or pin numbers. Just have a chip or two implanted into your hand and hope that nobody ever finds a way to read them with a small handheld device from a few feet away.

Now where did I put my tinfoil gloves?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday September 07 2015, @10:54AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday September 07 2015, @10:54AM (#233219) Journal

    At this point, it really is nothing more than a curiosity. Something to jack your jaws over, the "owners" get some kind of bragging rights. Until, of course, the chips are duplicated. Then the bad guys can walk in like they own the place.

    The chips can't be the ONLY means of identification. The computer needs to check a biometric as well. Bunch of dummies, they already know that chips can be copied. The more chips there are in use, the more profitable it will be to read them then duplicate them. It's just a matter of time until these chip's "security" is meaningless.

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  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:05AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:05AM (#233223)

    Joke's on you. Guy's got two chips, see. Two chips gonna solve every thing.

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by art guerrilla on Monday September 07 2015, @11:51AM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Monday September 07 2015, @11:51AM (#233238)

      all you hand belong to us ! ! !

      i foresee a growth market in machetes...

      • (Score: 1) by jamestrexx on Monday September 07 2015, @11:52AM

        by jamestrexx (5363) on Monday September 07 2015, @11:52AM (#233240) Homepage

        Indeed, the first thought I had; Hand, meet axe. Axe, meet hand.

      • (Score: 2) by penguinoid on Tuesday September 08 2015, @06:32AM

        by penguinoid (5331) on Tuesday September 08 2015, @06:32AM (#233652)

        "Unhand me, you scoundrel."

        --
        RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
  • (Score: 2) by jimshatt on Monday September 07 2015, @11:44AM

    by jimshatt (978) on Monday September 07 2015, @11:44AM (#233234) Journal
    I believe duplication would require very close proximity because NFC's range is only about 20 cm (7.8 inches) at the most. If the challenge has key verification in itself, it would be even more difficult. Physical access changes everything of course, but it's not like you can just pickpocket someone's hand.
    I'm not a security expert, so it could be that I'm completely wrong about this and Runaway is completely right.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:48AM (#233237)

      pickpocket someone's hand

      Step 1: I pay you to give me a handjob.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @12:05PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @12:05PM (#233247)

      Door handles are everywhere

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @12:28PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @12:28PM (#233253)

      Being a small chip, the antenna will be very small. Reading from it even at a centimeter will be a pain for a low power reader.

      • (Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Monday September 07 2015, @02:16PM

        by pe1rxq (844) on Monday September 07 2015, @02:16PM (#233274) Homepage

        So the bad guys will build a high power reader....
        It doesn't really matter to them that they are microwaving their fictims testicles anyway. (Actually as a bonus they are improving the gene-pool, the guy was to stupid to carry a key anyway)

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:52AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 07 2015, @11:52AM (#233239)

    Except for being implanted, this seems a lot like a keyless ignition keyfob for a car. And, those don't seem to be very secure, now that repeaters are available.

    Another keyless alternative -- when I lived in a place with many roommates, one of the EE grads rigged up "Yorick", a plastic skull with photo transistors in the eye sockets. A little bit of TTL logic (this was c.1980) decoded the correct sequence of hand waves and triggered a solenoid to open the front door.

    It was still a good idea to carry a key...in case the light bulb in the hall burned out...

  • (Score: 1) by Yaa101 on Monday September 07 2015, @11:11PM

    by Yaa101 (4091) on Monday September 07 2015, @11:11PM (#233507)

    In fact, there are even darker scenarios like in the continuüm series, in 2039 the corporations institute a form of debtors' prisons, in which people who cannot afford to pay their debts to the corporations are officially stripped of their citizenships and implanted with mind-control chips, permanently making them brain-dead zombies who serve as worker-drones in corporate factories.

    --
    No comment...