Buzz Writer

By Jonathan Parker

 United States Sets Date for E-Passports

The U.S. State Division says all U.S. passports issued starting in October 2006 will contain RFID chips.

The U.S. Express Division issued its final rules today specifying its plans to concern electronic passports (e-passports) containing RFID tags. The division says it intends to begin its e-passport program in December. The first stage will be a pilot program in which e-passports will be issued to government employees utilizing official or diplomatic passports for government travel. This pilot, the division says, will permit field-testing prior towards the very first issuance towards the American traveling public, early next year. By October 2006, all U.S. passports, using the exception of a small number of emergency passports issued by U.S. embassies or consulates, will include RFID tags.

The final rule incorporates amendments resulting from comments to a proposed rule originally published in the Federal Register on Feb. 18. The State Department says it received a total of 2,335 comments concerning its proposal to introduce e-passports. The division categorized 98.5 percent from the feedback as negative, 1 percent as positive and 0.5 percent as neutral. Concerning issues raised by those comments, the department says 2,019 expressed security and/or privacy concerns; 171 raised basic objections to the use of the information chip and/or RFID; 85 expressed basic objections towards the use of electronic passports; 52 listed basic technology concerns; and 8 focused on religious problems. The feedback are obtainable for review at the travel.express.gov section from the department’s Web site.

The chip used in the e-passports will comply with the ISO 14443 RFID specification and contain the same information as a passport’s information page?the passport holder’s name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photo. The chip will also include the passport amount, concern date, expiration date and type of passport. The ISO 14443 specification permits chips to be study when an e-passport is placed within approximately 10 centimeters of an RFID interrogator (reader).

Of all objections the department received regarding its plans, the overwhelming majority expressed concern over the possible for skimming and/or eavesdropping. Skimming may be the act of creating an unauthorized connection with an RFID tag so that you can gain access to its data. Eavesdropping may be the interception from the electronic communication session between an RFID tag and an authorized reader.

To prevent skimming, the division will add shielding material to the passport’s front cover and spine. The material is supposed to make the e-passport’s RFID tag unreadable as long as its cover is closed or nearly closed. The department will also implement Basic Access Control (BAC), which functions as a Personal Identification Number (PIN) in the form of characters printed on the passport information page. Prior to a passport’s tag can be study, this PIN should be inputted into an RFID reader. The BAC also enables the encryption of any communication between the chip and interrogator.

To ensure that U.S. e-passports are interoperable with other nations’ systems, the document’s embedded RFID chip will comply with specifications developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The ICAO specification requires a minimum capacity of 32 kilobytes of memory for storing data on the chip, whereas the U.S. government has opted for a chip with 64 kilobytes of memory to allow for the potential storage of extra data or biometric indicators such as fingerprints or iris scans, sometime within the future. Before the division adds additional information or biometric identifier other than a digitized photograph, however, it says it will seek public comment through a new rule-making process.

A number of other nations have already begun issuing e-passports, including Sweden.

For additional information on United States Passports, British Visa, Canadian Passports, Visas for All Countries, you can visit this website.

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The Good and the Grave of Receiving News On the web

By editor notthetimes

 A news editorial written by Doug Gross on March first 2010 and published by CNN, reported that as many as 75% of the population in the United States acquire their news and information from on-line resources as opposed to television or newspapers. Why would so many turn to this new resource for news and information?

1. In spite of of your political persuasion you are undoubtedly aware that what passes for news from the major news outlets is usually rubbish. Too frequently they serve up super-sized helpings of worthless but dramatic reports, while neglecting to put out news that is crucially significant to you, your family and friends. About a year ago every major news outlet was publishing stories about two collage aged adults video tapeing upsetting events at ACORN offices. It was a sensational story that ran for days. Did you learn the later story when the FBI studied the tapes and determined that the young man’s voice was dubbed in later so the ACORN person was not answering the question you thought you heard? While few taxpayers would understand it if our tax dollars in reality were being used to sustain what the video pretended to demonstrate, there is a larger matter here. Why wasn’t the main stream media, both television news and newspapers trying to figure out where 700 BILLION dollars vanished to?

By contrast, useful information is in reality what the internet is for. While it occasionally requires some time, browsing for news frequently results in finding those essential news stories.

2. We recognized the truth in the old saying “Whoever pays the piper, gets to call the tune.” Commercial news outlets have an monetary interest in not offending companies or industries who purchase advertising from them. Too often and often too late the public is advised of a major news event that wasn’t published until the problem was settled. Months later we are told of the information withheld by the key publishers to look after their advertisers.

The world has lots of individuals who are actively occupied in weighty events going on in and around their lives and for any one of a lengthy list of motives, they often want to get information to the public. To those citizens the internet is the perfect medium to enlighten people. There are no corporate obligations to inhibit the information from being disseminated rather just people determined to get the information to other people who might profit from it.

3. But there is a hazard of news from the net as well. Too often well intended to malicious people make up hysterical threats that plainly don’t exist. One new case of this was the “boxcar and shackles” story. The story was that boxcars were being designed and fitted with shackles to haul people off to concentration camps located across the US. After researching this it was obvious that the freight cars in question have been in use for about 20 years for moving vehicles. The shackles? They are the tackle used to hold the autos in place during transport.

Unhappily this rumor got some “traction” and scared people who believed it. So the challenge of using the internet for gathering news is little different from handling a firearm. Manage it carefully, know without question the source, examine and research over again. Information that seems extremist should be researched until all doubt about the accurateness is definite.

Internet news is regularly exceptional in its’ breadth and scope. Using it you will discover information that impacts your daily life and outlook. But do be thorough when you read, listen to or see information that is extreme. It might be right, but it is your duty to study the information. Or, simply gather your news from dependable sources and save the time.

Not The Times is a new source of important but not hysterical news on a variety of topics you can use every day. Pete Orthmann, Editor

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