igargoyle

How's Mikey Sklar?

Mikey Sklar caught up with me because of my coverage of the things he's been up to with RFID. Mikey's going to be on CNBC's "On the Money" tomorrow (Tuesday Jan 10th) at 7:00pm EST, and was recently written about in the Science Times section of the New York Times (coming out Jan 17th). I just started getting to know the guy, and it seems we have very similar interests. In the name of journalism, I plan to do a podcast with him soon, and here's a teaser about his RFID implant I wrote about before.

How's your implant? Has it healed well? Does it hurt at all? Implant is doing pretty well. I have a visible scar that does not seem to be going away. I did not feel any pain during the implant or after. The litocaine injection was the only thing that bothered me at all. Just like when the dentist gives you a novacaine injection in the gums, it stings.

Also Mikey says there's some other RFID things we may not be aware of:

Reuters Video

http://www.reuters.com
* choose "video" tab
* choose "life"
* choose "Chip implants for techno buffs"

[ Previous Links: Another RFID Implant, Mikey Gets Implanted, Fan Fan Boy Fans Himself with Fan Suit ]

Mikey Sklar gets Implanted

Reader, Jonny Goldstein writes:

Here's a video I did of Mikey describing the how, what, and why of his RFID implant adventure.

I was a bit puzzled after writing about him yesterday. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of RFID. I keep joking with my girlfriend that I want to get cyborganic tentacles though. "Why are you squirming? I thought you loved tentacle porn!".

I guess RFID tags are a cheap way to get a fairly unique body modification. If we can only get more kids into this trend, and maybe it will hit the 11:00 news. Maybe with a bit of media manipulation, the 11:00 news will get all the kids into the act.

[ Link via Jonny Goldstein. Thanks Jonny! ]

Tagged: RFID Implant Forum

In the vein of RFID implants, here's a link to an RFID Implant forum. Common, all the cool kids are doing it!

[ Link via del ]

Another RFID Implant

Another bloke has decided to take the plunge into RFID by implanting an RFID chip into his hand. There are tons of others who have done this, one of whom did a MAKE interview on his implant, and there was also a big story on the Mexican Attorney General who got chipped.

The big difference with this new guy? He didn't do it for automation purposes. He just wanted to learn about RFID, and it only cost him $105 to do so.

He's demonstrating this human hackery at the next New York Dorkbot meeting next Wednesday, January 4th at Location One gallery in SoHo at 7pm.

Oh yeah, and here's a video of him implanting himself. Ewww... DIY cyberpunkery.

[ Link via boingboing ]

Passports to get RFID chip implants

You probably already knew that people hated the idea of RFID in passports, but now there's some data to back it up!

2019 comments listed security and/or privacy; 171 listed general objections to use of the data chip and/or the use of RFID; 85 listed general objections to use of the electronic passport; 52 listed general technology concerns; and 8 listed religious concerns. Overall, approximately 1% of the comments were positive, 98.5% were negative, and .5% were neither negative nor positive.

Oh, but these surveys aren't done to decide on whether or not we should adopt RFID into our passports, they're only a way to make us feel like we might have an impact. The Bush administration is going right ahead with this plan, and they have eery 1984 plans to adopt iris and fingerprint scanning technology.

All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely-readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.

Sweeping new State Department regulations issued Tuesday say that
passports issued after that time will have tiny radio frequency ID
(RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as "fingerprints or iris scans."

Over the last year, opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport.

[ Link via boingboing via politech ]

RFID Pocket Protection

Since RFID tags may be sensitive, and are easy to steal information from, some textile hackers built a faraday cage for their jean pockets. They replaced their cotton pockets with electromagnetic field shielding fabrics, which can be bought online for about $13USD per foot. The guys who did this simple hack even have a howto video to watch.

I imagine this fabric would restrict cellular frequencies too, and would be a good substitute for tin foil hats.

[ Link via del ]

MAKE interview with RFID implanter

Amal embedded a RFID tag in his hand to easily open his car door, home and to be used as his "password" for a Windows login prompt all by simply waving his hand.

Unless I'm really wrong about the way RFID works, a fun hack would be to swipe this guy's RFID (secretly of course), and then copy the ID onto another RFID so that you can completely pwn his life.

Also makes me wonder how soon someone will get an "embedded" linux computer under their skin.

[ Link to MAKE interview. Found via del.icio.us. Link to previous entry regarding Mexican Attny General getting chipped for "security" purposes. ]