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posted by mrpg on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the next-a-usb-port dept.

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?


Original Submission

Related Stories

Alarm Over Talks to Implant UK Employees With Microchips 42 comments

From The Guardian:

Britain's biggest employer organisation and main trade union body have sounded the alarm over the prospect of British companies implanting staff with microchips to improve security.

UK firm BioTeq, which offers the implants to businesses and individuals, has already fitted 150 implants in the UK.

The tiny chips, implanted in the flesh between the thumb and forefinger, are similar to those for pets. They enable people to open their front door, access their office or start their car with a wave of their hand, and can also store medical data.

[...] Steven Northam, the founder and owner of Hampshire-based BioTeq, told the Guardian that most of its 150 implants have been for individuals, while some financial and engineering firms have also had the chips implanted in their staff.

BioTeq has also implanted them in employees of a bank testing the technology, and has shipped them to Spain, France, Germany, Japan and China.

We recently covered similar technology being used in Sweden but the idea of implanting a tracking chip in a human for identification is nothing new.


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 2) by exaeta on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:04AM (12 children)

    by exaeta (6957) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:04AM (#758872) Homepage Journal

    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)

      by Virindi (3484) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:11AM (#758873)

      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)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:47AM (#758911) Journal

        Might be nice to be able to change crypto keys noninvasively though.

        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 DannyB on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:06PM

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:06PM (#758980) Journal

        It's better than a fingerprint

        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).

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:19AM (2 children)

      by Nuke (3162) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:19AM (#758894)

      These chips aren't easily stolen

      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)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 07 2018, @03:09PM (#758981) Journal

        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

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:04PM

          by PinkyGigglebrain (4458) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:04PM (#759070)

          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)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @11:06AM (#758905)

      These chips aren't easily stolen, so they could provide some rather good security.

      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.

      Possibly better than a fingerprint scanner, and could be made cryptographically secure.

      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

        by exaeta (6957) on Monday November 12 2018, @03:13PM (#760927) Homepage Journal

        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

        by exaeta (6957) on Monday November 12 2018, @03:28PM (#760931) Homepage Journal

        To further elaborate, while I don't disagree that a standard chip will be insecure, it could be made secure by doing the following:

        • First, the reader powers up the chip with a magnetic field that the chip uses a coil to steal power from.
        • Next, the reader sends (by NFC or similar) a code that it asks the chip to sign
        • The chip performs an ed25519 signature on the code and also broadcasts the code back to the reader
        • The reader has specialized hardware to time the response and makes sure it is received within (e.g.) 10 nanoseconds of sending the request.
        • The security chip could indicate how long it takes to process the data, so any processing time is excluded from the time calculation which limits the distance from the reader. So if it takes 12 nanoseconds to process, sign, and reply to a message, then that time is added to the nonce before signing so the reader can factor it in for distance calculations.
        • Say the chip takes exactly 30 nanoseconds to sign the nonce every time, the reader could send a response and see how quickly the chip responds. If the response is received within 32 nanoseconds, then the reader knows the chip is less than 30cm away thanks to special relativity.

        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)

      by looorg (578) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @01:51PM (#758942)

      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

        by exaeta (6957) on Monday November 12 2018, @03:11PM (#760925) Homepage Journal

        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
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:26AM (1 child)

    by Barenflimski (6836) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @08:26AM (#758875)

    4000-5000 people isn't really that many people over a population or 9.95 million. That's about .00005% or so. If they would give it a few more years, facial recognition should take care of this for them if they really want to be tracked everywhere.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Lester on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:27AM (3 children)

    by Lester (6231) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @10:27AM (#758895) Journal

    The microchip can be inserted in a bracelet, or the strap of your wristwatch, and it would be as handy and convenient as under your skin.

    But the most important, I want to be able to disconnect/connect it. I don't want anybody with RFID reader reads data. My credit card has a RFID microchip that can be used without pin for less than 20€ payments, I have it in my wallet in a part that is protected, some thing like this [lifehacker.com]. Moreover, if you keep it enabled full time, there are more chances to be hacked/cloned (High-tech cloning [reuters.com])

    Com'on, we needn't to be body-marked (iron brand on cattle, chips for dogs, or tattooed like Nazi's prisoners) for a, little, tiny, minuscule convenience. Let's not take that path.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:39PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:39PM (#759027)

      If that chip becomes mandatory, I'm going to get into the business of making RF blocking gloves. Anyone else into chainmail? http://theringlord.org/introtomailling/history.htm [theringlord.org]

      Another option, instead of putting the chip into a ring or watch, it could also be in a glove.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:42PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @04:42PM (#759030)

      What is this wrist watch thing you speak of?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 07 2018, @05:25PM (#759057)

      it's probably closed source too. skynet client id.

  • (Score: 1) by zzarko on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:37PM

    by zzarko (5697) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:37PM (#759084)

    ... is all that someone who tries to put something under my skin will get.

    --
    C64 BASIC: 1 a=rnd(-52028):fori=1to8:a=rnd(1):next:fori=1to5:?chr$(rnd(1)*26+65);:next
  • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:47PM

    by legont (4179) on Wednesday November 07 2018, @06:47PM (#759089)

    My bet is it will soon be required for crossing the border similar to pet's chips https://www.petrelocation.com/blog/post/iso-compatible-microchips-for-pet-travel-to-the-european-union [petrelocation.com]

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
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