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N e w s & A n a l y s i sC h i p p i n g A w a y a t P r i v a c y ?

B y B i l l Z a i u d , E d i t o rDOG S DO IT. HORSES DO IT. Uamn and alpaca even do it.

Goats? Sheep? Miniature pigs? Rabbits? Deer? Ferrets? Sure, thall do it, too.But wbat about Aunt Mary or newborn Shawn? Should they do i

Welcome to the controversial, but to some, wonderful world the microchip.A microchip implant is an identifying integrated circuit plac

under tbe skin. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rand based on passive radio frequency identification (RFID) techn"g>'- These inert devices contain no internal power source. Theydesigned so that they do not act until acted upon.

Microchips implanted into animals can verify them when lostsold. The technology is perfect for such applications.

Three basic elements comprise most microchips:A silicon chip {integrated circuit), a core of ferrite wrapped in coper wire and a small capacitor. The silicon chip contains data plelectronic circuits to relay that information to a scanner. Tbe ferror iron core acts as a radio antenna, ready to receive a signal frotbe scanner. The capacitor acts as a tuner, forming a circuit with tantenna coil.G l a s s C a p s u l e

1 or i[iiphinting into live subjects, these components are encain special biocompatible glass made trom soda lime and hermeticasealed to prevent any moisture or fluid entering the unit.For years, animal owners have embraced these chips to identlost dogs or to verify real expensive racehorses, as two exa.mples. V

contend tbat animals are not affected physically or behaviorally the presence of these little chips in their bodies. Still, some studsuggest that the chips can migrate inside an animal's body.More recently, microchip vendors, a handful of businesses aeven wbole countries are, to varying degrees, advocating injectmicrochips into people to identify infants if they are kidnapped,alert to a wandering patient, as a fraud-proof payment methodeven to open a door into a sensitive facility area.

For people, tbe microchip implant is mostly medically safe, whsome suggest, tha[ similar to animal studies, the chip could maround the body over the course of time or in certain situations. Suchips last for 10-15 years but the process of removal is difficult.

But the obvious controversy falls into four concern areas: the insiveness of the approach, privacy issues, the perceived link to Nlike tattoos and the "mark of the beast" fear shared by some peobased on their religious beliefs.

Still, in tbe United States, three recent actions indicate tbat,

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N e w s & A n a l y s i sMicrocips, such as the VeriCtiip, consist of a siliconchip (integrated circuit), a core of ferrite wrapped incopper wire and a small capacitor.

some applications, microchip implants acloser to reality if nor total acceptance.

lhe U.S. Department of Defense ( D o Dior example, has recently awarded $ 1million to lhe Center for BioclcctronicBiosensors and Biochips (C3B) at ClenisoUniversity for development of what thDoD calls an iniplantable blochip thcould relay vita! health information if soldier is wounded in battle or a civiliis burr in an accident. For tbe military, would replace so-called "dog-tags" thar carlimited amount o( personal informatioAppropriate personnel, equipped with

M a r k of the Beast

T here is an ever widening contu-sion and misunderstandingamong Christians over theidentification ot the mark ot the beast.Some contend it is received in a per-

Same people oppose implanting microchips inpeople out of fear of the mark ot the beast, inwhich they believe the devil is involved. Othercritics see an invasion ot privacy.son's hand or in a person's forehead orthrough a credit card, laser mark or amicrochip implant, or even a nationalidentitication number. Connected withthe above is the belief that if any ofGod's people possess or are in any wayconnected with the above items, thenthey have received the "mark" of thisbeast and are lost.

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N e w s & A n a l y s i s

Hundteds of thousands of dogs have heen injected with a microchip, often from AVIO,so that in case of loss, they can he identified if found.portable reader, could mote quickly gather useful information orquickly tie into a local or remote database.

ihe biochip could measure and relay such information as lactateand glucose levels in ihe event of a major hemorrhage, whether onthe banlefleld, at home or on the highway, for instance.Moni tor ing Hea l th

Aiuhony ( l i i i scppi - t l i c , C3B director and DowChemicalProfessor oi Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and professorof bioengineering, said first tesponders ro a trauma scene could injectthe biochip into the wounded vict im and gather data almost imme-

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_ .rth millions of dollars, h i i i ' [ ] ; i ! , i ; i i .cnips so that they can better identified when sold.diately. The device has othe r long-rerm poten tial applicatio ns such monitoring astronauts ' vi tal signs during long-duration space fl ighand reading blood-sugat levels for diabetics."We now lose a large percentage ofpatients to bleeding, agetting vital Information such as how much oxygen is inthe tissback toER physicians and medical personnel can often mean tdifference between life and death," said Guiseppi-Elie. "Our goal10 improve the quality and expediency of care for fallen soldiers acivilian traum a victim s." Ih e bio chip also may be injected as a pcaution to future traumas, he added.

What is Pr ivacy?

P rivacy tias no definite boundaries with different meaningsfor different people. It is the ability ot an individual orgroup to keep their lives and personal affairs out of publicview, or to control the flow ot Intormation about themselves.Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity a lthough itis oftenmost highly valued by people who are publicly known. Privacycan be seen as an aspect of security one in which trade-offsbetween the interests of one group and another can becomeparticularly clear

The right against unsanctioned invasion of privacy by the gov-ernment, corporations or individuals is part of many countries'laws, and in some cases, constitutions or privacy laws. In theUnited States, the Supreme Court has stitched together privacyfrom several constitutional sources. The federal Privacy Act of1974 set requirements of federal agencies to protect federal infor-mation. A number of states have a more literal rights ot privacy.

Privacy may be voluntarily sacriticed. normally in exchangefor perceived benefifs, but often with little benefit and veryoften with specific dangers and losses. An example of voluntarysacrifice is entering a sweepstakes or competitions. A persongives personal details (often for advertising purposes) in orderto have a chance of winning a prize. Another example is whereinformation voluntarily shared is later stolen or misused such asin identity theff.

The latest privacy concern is a flip on previous threats.Enterprises and institutions that have allowed employee or studentrecords to be lost or stolen have been liable for privacy invasion.

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If'S o me p a r e n t s , f e a ri n g th e k idnapping ot the i r newborns , have implanted microchipsIn the i r bab ies so t h a t - if they ar e recovered iook ing d i f fe tent in a n u mb e r of years- c a n b e i d e n t i f i e d .

Clemson scientists have formulated a gel that mimics human tis-su e and reduces the chances of the body rejecting the chip, which hasbeen a problem in the past . The researcher predicts rhe chip is fiveyears away from human trials in such healthcare applications.

The Clemson project is one of the most far-reaching with medi-cal information gathering in addit ion to personal identification. Theproject also seeks to fmd a solution related to smarr weapons. In thiscase, the weapon would read the implant and, it there is a match,allow thf weapon to be fired.

Almost at the same time this year, the American MedicalAssociation's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs adopted a policystating that implantable radio frequency identification devices mayhelp to identify patients, thereby improving the safety and efficiencyot patient care, and may be used to enable secure access to patientclinical information.

The bottom line: Implanted microchips can provide logical accesscont rol .

About three years before the AMA position paper, the t-ood andDrug Administrat ion opened the door by giving approval to a micro-chip (the VeriChip from Applied Digital Solutions of Delray Beach,Fla.) implanted under the skin to give doctors instant access to apatient's records. In such an application, the capsule transmits a uniquecode to a scanner to let doctors contlrin a patient's identity and obtaindetailed medical information from a computer-l inked database.

The solution works.Just weeks ago, the technology was successfully used at HackensackUniversi ty Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J., helping a Bergen

County Police Officer, who previously received the VeriChip dur ingan emergency si tuation. The event represented the first time thata patient who had received it was able to receive treatment from ahospital thai also offered the system.Medical His tory at Arm

Hackensack's emergency room medical staff had immediate, secureaccess to Sgt. William Koretsky's identit)' and medical history afterscanning his microchip and linking itwith the officers patient informa-tion file stored on a secure database. Koretsky, a Bei^en County Policeofficer, was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with head,neck and back injuries after a high-speed chase that resulted in a caraccident. He consented to disclosing his name and information aboutthe incident to the media including Security Mi^azine so that others

People n o w s e e va lue in microcf i ip implants . Mast o f ten in jected in to a n a t m , t h e p r o -c e d u r e c o s t s a b o u t S 2 0 0 . T b e t e ar e h e a l f fi c a r e , wa n d e r i n g p a t i e n t a n d even physica laccess contro l appl ica t ions .could know of the benefits of having medical records rapidly available."As a police officer involved in high-risk situations, incidents stallas my experience at Hackensack University Medical C^entcr highlightthe important role chat the VeriChip can play in situations where itis critical for emergency room personnel to access medical conditionsand history. As a result of my previously receiving the VeriChip andHackensack's emergency room having a patient identifkation system, !was able to receive faster treatment during thecritical time period whenI arrived at the hospital," said Koretsky.

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Applied Digital Solutions markets theVcrlChip systems the ch ips, scannersand computerized database to hospitals,doctors and patients as a way to improvecare and avoid errors by ensuring that doc-tors know whom they are creating and thepatient's personal healih details. Emergencyroom doctors could scan unconscious acci-dent victims to check blood type and med-ications and make sure they have no drugallergies. Surgeonji could scan patients inthf operating room to guard against cut-ting into the wrong person. Chips couldbe implanted inAlzheimer's patients incase they get lost.B e y o n d M e d i c a l N e e d s

Beyond healthcart, VeriChip seems tobe going where some others fear to tread.But critics fear endangering patient pri-vacy. The Big Brother scenario; citizensand employees will be tracked by theimplants or required to have them insertedfor surveillance, identification and otherpurposes. More than amillion VcriChipstrack livestock, cats, dogs and other pets.Still it is suggested that a little more thana thousand people have had a niircochipimplant.

According tomedia reports, Mexico'saitorney general claimed he had one of thedevices injected into his arm, as had about160 of his lieutenants. The application wasto control access tohigh-security offices.In clubs in Amsterdam and Barcelona,patrons supposedly can have the chipsimplanted to allow them to enter exclusiveareas and keep track of their tabs.

The bottom line: Wireless technologies,RFID development, new software solu-tions, smart card applications and underskin implants might one day come togeth-er as another solution for law enforcementand enterpri.ses. A person canlose anaccess control card or a credit card, but itis more rare to lo.se an arm containing themicrochip.

More generally, privacy advocatesand some state legislators, primarily inCalifornia, have expressed concerns aboutchip, token and card-based RFID. sug-gesting that unauthorized people couldpick off personal information as it fliesthrotigh the air. The animal and humanmicrochip applications have very shortread ranges. So it's a long shot that aninterloper could come within three to 12or so inches tocapture information. In

card designs, most ohen what Hies througthe air is a number that relates toseparate, much harder to access databas

Scott Silverman ofVeriChip says thprimary aim is tohelp high-risk medcal patients such as those with diabeteAlzheimer's, cancer and heart conditionHe has been quoted in the media as saying that "It should be first and foremovoluntary. No one should ever be forced tget an implantable microchip."F e a r i n C h i p sOth ers are less confident in the humaapplication of the implanted m icrochip.

Katherine Albrecht, a co-author oSpychips, has been quoted as saying thwriting is on the wall that VeriChip itaking us down a treacherous road. "everybody had a chip in them, we woulbe blissfully unaware of big brother," shhas been quoted. Still, it is extraordinarly remote that "everybody" will have aimplanted microchip one day.

Silverman has pointed out that, once person has been chipped, the device coulhe used tor other applications beyonhealthcare records orwandering patieneeds.

There are first adopters, of coursJohn Halamka, an emergency physiciaat Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess MedicCenter, carried a microchip inside him.is aimed primarily at personal healthcarecords, although he has been quotethat he has "lost my anonymity."

S e c u r i ty a n d t h eY o u T u b e G e n e r a t i o nB y C h a r l e s P . H o w e s

The dark side of Youlube is affectinthe security industry and it's no laughinmatter. YouTube material can be easy tfind, but also threatening to the securiindustry's image. Postings of attacks anincidents some gruesome captured bsecurity video and frightening images opeople identifying themselves as securiindustry workers.

Fotinded in February 2005 as a place distribute original videos on the InterneYouTube.com is a favorite pastime forlarge audience of compu ter users. Cyber ciizens can upload videos and enjoy a worlwide audience. The site contains vidsnippets of hobbies, current events, unusuhappenings, parodies, pajama-party ski

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