Manchester Airport's planned trial of the
e-border system, which equips border gates with facial
recognition technology, has raised concerns over cloning and
security issues.
The new gates use facial recognition to match the faces of UK
and EEA passport holders with their biometric passports.
But the e-passports, which contain an
RFID chip, could be vulnerable to attack, claimed security
specialist Ken Munro.
"As yet, cloning seems to be the most pressing issue however,
future attacks could lead to passport forgery, or even modification
over the air. If someone could replace the photo, then a forged
passport could be used to beat the system," he said.
Ken Munro, director of Secure Test, said that the timetable for
issuing the UK biometric passport, first available in March 2006,
is so tight that fraud prevention technology is unlikely to be
developed quickly enough.
"Seven million vulnerable passports are being issued per year.
It will be a long time until new technology that prevents hacking
attacks can be rolled out.
US e-passports include a layer of foil in the lining to prevent
RFID skimming attacks UK passports do not."
A home office spokesman said of Munro's claims, "The first thing
to note is this is a trial, the system has been tested in the sense
that it is already used in other countries such as Portugal and
Singapore, and the system will not function as a standalone check,
there will still be staff making checks at the border. Security is
something we constantly review."
The "e-Borders" electronic border system aims to ensure every
visitor is counted in and out of the country by 2014.
More than 99% of foreign nationals from outside the EEA will be
tracked in and out of Britain by 2010, according to the Home
Office.
If successful the gates could be rolled-out across the
country.