In a video on YouTube, an explosion in a trash can, which appears to be wirelessly triggered by a passport equipped with a computer chip, blows away a dummy.
Two caveats: That's not a real passport, and even Kevin Mahaffey, the Los Angeles security consultant who made the video, calls it "a far-out scenario."
It is unlikely that terrorists or others could steal your identity or attack you through the new computer chips in U.S. passports, many experts say. But that hasn't stopped the rumors from ricocheting around the Internet.
Sorting fact from fiction is tough when it comes to the "smart" chips, tiny integrated circuits that are being embedded in U.S. passports. They're part of efforts to improve border security that, starting Jan. 31, also will tighten document requirements for traveling from Canada to the U.S.
Here's how the chips work:
They use radio frequency identification, or RFID, a wireless technology with various applications.
The chip on your passport stores your name, gender, birth date and place; your passport number, its issue and expiration dates; and a digital version of your ID photo. It broadcasts this data when its antenna is activated by signals from a government reader at a border crossing.
The security of this broadcast is the crux of the debate. The State Department says the chip's range is about 4 inches and that it cannot be read when the passport book is fully closed.
But with the right equipment, early critics said, people several feet away or farther could secretly access the data and use it to identify Americans, track their movements and steal their personal information. The chip also could be copied or altered to make phony passports, some said.
Responding to concerns, the State Department added security features:
To block radio signals, it put metallic material in the passport's front cover and spine.
To thwart eavesdropping, it placed a cryptographic key on the printed data page that must be read by an optical scanner to unlock the chip's data. (Officials note that Social Security number and address are not on the chip.)
To prevent tracking, it installed a "randomized unique identification" system that presents a different ID to a reader each time the chip is accessed.
To counter fraud, it installed a digital signature that flags chips that have been altered.
