RFID Tech Failure: Verichip Hacked and Cloned

Jonathan Westhues

Verichip’s claims that its human tagging technology (implanting a RFID microchip under the skin for medical/ identification purposes) is secure has been shown to be completely false by this author. Is the stock then another pump and dump deal? Or?)

Verichip markets their product for access control. This means that you could have a chip implanted, and then your front door would unlock when your shoulder got close to the reader.

Let us imagine that you did this; then, I could sit next to you on the subway, and read your chip’s ID.

This takes less than a second.

At this point I can break in to your house, by replaying that ID.

So now you have to change your ID; but as far as I know, you cannot do this without surgery.

All of this relates to an article that Annalee Newitz wrote for Wired. I would not have looked at these parts otherwise; the Verichip is built with no attempt at security, and is therefore not very special to clone.