Ways to Blow up Identity Card's RFID Chips

In October, the U.S. State Department began issuing biometric "ePassports" that contain a radio frequency identification tag under the back cover. The tiny chip holds the usual passport data, including a digital photo. The motive behind adding the chips is ostensibly good: to combat counterfeiting and illegal immigration. However the good intention of big brother omnipresence backlash faster than a crack whip. A German hacker quickly found a way to crack the encryption. With a laptop and a chip reader he bought for $200, he was able to steal data from an encrypted RFID tag, potentially allowing him to clone an ePassport. And it's not just Americans who are at risk. Twenty-seven countries (mostly in Europe) that participate in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program are required by U.S. law to issue the new electronic passports to their citizens. The Dutch and British media have already reported major security flaws in the new IDs. Despites an obvious flaw in the chip encryption scheme, the US State Department will push the RFID passport program mandating all passport with always -on radio frequency identification chips by January 1. This will making it easy for officials and hackers alike to grab your personal stats.

So what's a security-conscious citizen like me will do? Though it is inevitable that Uncle Sam want to track everyone like cattle's, however there are still ways to make this method a bit more inconvenient for them. So I went around and do some research for devising a best plan to disable the RFID chips without burning up your passport all together. But be careful - tampering with a passport is punishable by 25 years in prison in the US. Not to mention the "special " custom search, with rubber gloves. If you're getting paranoid about strangers slurping up you identity ? Here 's what you can do about it.

Water Treatment

1 "Accidentally" leaving your passport in the jeans you just put in the washer won't work. You're more likely to ruin you passport than the chip. Plus in the near future there will plenty more of RFID water resistance type.

Nuking

2 Forget about nuking it in the microwave, long term exposure to the nuking session could cause the chips burst into flames, leaving scorch marks. Besides ruining you passport with permanent nasty burnt smell.

Hammer Time
3 The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn't invalidate the passport. So you can still use it.

Best Solution

Hammer Time + 10 second Nuking Session, this will ensure that you've properly destroyed the actual storage unit within the chip itself. A brief microwave session also help electrocuting the power supply circuit. So what will you have left at the end, is a non working RFID passport with all your paper trail information intact. Besides this will give some work for your local custom agent to do typing the information and do their job.