Airline Cybersecurity Focuses on Use of RFID Tags & Biometrics - By: Allan Michael Taylor

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been identified as a core area for improving security on major airlines and air travel generally. At the same time, the increasing use of biometrics, especially in connection with electronic passports has received an unexpected boost from a recent international incident involving Israel.

Any air traveler understands the joys of checking-in luggage and the frequently frustrated expectation which goes with trying to retrieve it at the other end of the journey. Jokes abound of how luggage handlers all seem to wear the same boot size, (size 16) because this is the imprint seen on luggage no matter where it comes from or gets to! In addition, there is the real problem with ensuring that luggage gets on the same aircraft as the passenger and is not left behind, or worse and yet still quite common, ends up on a completely different aircraft and engages in a round the world trip on its own.

By tagging luggage with RFID technology, the luggage handling process can be streamlined and made more reliable. At the same time, luggage which is equipped with an RFID tag at check-in can be associated with a particular passenger and tracked through the chain which takes the luggage from passenger to air side, to aircraft and then disembarkation at destination and finally, back to the passenger.

The implications for airline security and enhanced customs control are all too apparent. The benefits for frustrated passengers seeking to reunited with their luggage are equally apparent. With an RFID tag, the luggage is capable of being tracked much more effectively and identified and associated with security procedures at check-in and throughout the trip. In addition, using the check-in data, it will be possible to aggregate the luggage cargo to ensure further items, which may obviate check-in and security procedures, cannot be added to the aircraft manifest, such as a bomb for instance.

Biometric passports are also evolving, however they are the source of many social and adoption problems. The privacy concerns in particular are causing many Western governments to question the necessity for the second generation of biometric passports which are being proposed. Such has the dissent been over privacy and concerns over data theft from biometric passports, that one leading political party in the UK has threatened to abolish them if elected.

The threat may be electioneering, however it has some grass roots support in the wake of a Mossad secret service operation carried out by Israel in the Middle East. Mossad agents carried out an assassination of an Arab target in the Middle East using forged biometric passports which had been copied from British, Irish and French tourists to Israel. The data collected by Israeli border control was then used to forge "new" biometric passports for their secret service agents who entered an Arab country to carry out the hit. Despite the claims that biometric passports are harder to forge, in this instance a glaring weakness has been exposed and how a foreign country can seriously misuse the information it collects as a consequence of the biometric component.

This affair is likely to have an impact on US homeland security – foreign travelers are required to have a biometric passport to enter the country, however if the rest of the world seeks to slow down or halt implementation of biometrics, this will have a severe impact on travel to America.

About the Author

By Mark Trumper, President of MaverickLabel.com, the Internet's leading provider of custom labels, stickers and decals. From asset tags, to window decals, MaverickLabel.com can provide all of your label needs. Call 1-800-537-8816

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