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Comment by Aaargh20318 | Hacker News Reader

Aaargh20318

They can’t forge a chipped passport unless they somehow got hold of the private key for the country’s CSCA certificate.

You can create a forged chipped passport, just have the chip not work. Won't work at the border, but would be fine everywhere else you show a passport. I've never had anyone (bars, hotels etc) read a chip.

Doing such a thing is entirely within the purview and capability set of an intelligence agency.

Why would you need to? Passports are not required to hire a person; most americans don’t even have one.

Nor citizens of many other countries; passports are mainly for out-of-country travel purposes.

Many countries require citizens to either have a passport or a national ID card. Lately, many countries have also been switching to biometric ones.

Not saying this helps in any way for employment purposes today, but the technology is out there in many places.

Proof of ability to work in the county legally is though, of which a passport is one of the allowed documents.

You’re not required to have a copy of annemployee’s ID on file?

Here (.nl) you need either a passport or an ID card and you are supposed to verify its authenticity.

Here in the US that likely means a state ID, such as a driver’s license, and a Social Security Number (SSN). None of which anyone would reasonably consider secure. I’m sure any national intelligence agency could probably manage stealing an SSN and forging a driver’s license to go with it, at least to the degree necessary to fool an employer for a little while.

The e-veirfy website says it validates a SSN, but by default that is not a valid means of verifying employability.

Meaning you can use a social security number of a dead person. A common form of immigration fraud.

> You’re not required to have a copy of annemployee’s ID on file?

In Germany you definitely don't have to. None of my past or current employers has ever seen my ID.

They can forge a real one by providing enough forged identity documents and paying the right bribes. They don't need to suborn the private keys - Just the people who have "use" access to them.

The likely approach would probably be less technical and more covert ops, tricking the target country into issuing a (technically) genuine passport. No need to break encryption/signing this way.

They can and also now you know why they use specific countries like Brazil, etc to forge fake identities (other than the fact it’s easier to mask the accent / cultural things). Also not all passports are chipped - it is not a requirement for us visa, only vwp

Of course they can. Have you not seen any Bond or Mission Impossible Movies?

But seriously, why would they not be able to? They will almost certainly have high-level connections into the State Dept. (or whatever agency issues passports for your country) that allows them to create any passports they need. Same way the Police can get license plates for undercover vehicles from the DMV that don't list "One Police Plaza" if someone (i.e. "other" Police) runs the plates.

Not all countries have chipped passports. But those passports are just as valid as any other.

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