[HIB]German ID cards hacked by the CCC

The sensitive personal information found on the new German identification cards with data chips scheduled for nationwide introduction this November can be easily hacked, according to testing done by a TV news show. Public broadcaster ARD’s show “Plusminus” teamed up with the hacker organisation the Chaos Computer Club to find out how secure the controversial new radio-frequency (RIHD) chips were. Set to air Tuesday evening, the report shows how they used the basic new home scanning machines that will go along with the cards, and found that scammers would have few problems extracting personal information. This includes two fingerprint scans, which German citizens can opt out of, and a new six-digit PIN number meant to be used as a digital signature for official government business and beyond. The home scanners will be necessary for use with home computers to process the personal data for official business and possibly even online shopping.

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