Wednesday, April 18, 2012

P is for Passkey

The passkey is how Imperial security keeps tabs on its more important citizens.

A bit like an RFID tag, a passkey is a piece of electronics about the size of a grain of rice, surgically implanted, usually somewhere in the abdomen.

Like an RFID tag, a passkey will respond to the right coded signal with information about its owner. Unlike an RFID tag, the passkey contains deeply-encrypted biometric data and security clearance codes.

The "Big Brother" side of the technology involves pervasive logging of people's movements. Passkeys are routinely scanned in towns and major sites of interest. Mostly, these are just passive records of identities as people pass nearby.

The benefit to the wearer, at least those high up in the hierarchy, is that their identity is automatically verified, giving them access to facilities so seamlessly that they are rarely even aware of the rings of security they've passed through. These kinds of checks involve more than passive logging. Access codes will be checked against clearance levels, and the monitoring station may verify biometric details.

The Empire places great faith in the security of its passkey technology. It uses signaling and encryption technology far removed from the general interchange standards used throughout civilization.

The Empire knew nothing about Shayla's brother, Brandt.

Naturally, posing as a high-ranking public servant, Shayla needed her own passkey.

Nobody outside of the Imperial Security Services laboratories has ever been able to forge a passkey good enough to fool the strict checks used around the Imperial capital. Brandt was no exception in this respect.

Shayla bypassed the problem of forgery by stealing one, after making sure its previous owner had no further need of it, of course.

With a genuine piece of technology in his hands, Brandt was able to crack the security, allowing Shayla to encrypt her own biometrics and any chosen set of access codes into the device. All she needed to do was read off and decrypt the access codes and identity information from her chosen target.

6 comments:

J Andrew Jansen said...

"after making sure its previous owner had no further need of it"

Lovely euphemism. Also, cool technology. The most intriguing part is that everything exists today to make that possible.

--j--

Johanna Garth said...

But what happens if they detonate the passkey? That worries me!

Botanist said...

J: Glad you spotted that :)

Johanna: You must have an imagination even more twisted than mine! There's no suggestion of exploding passkeys...not that anyone will officially admit to...

klahanie said...

Hi Ian,
This continues to intrigue. And the technology you allude to in regards to the "passkey" certainly seems to have advanced from my high school days in Vancouver, when I needed a 'pass key' from the teacher in order to leave the classroom during class to go to the toilets...
Take care, my friend and happy writing.
Gary

Botanist said...

Gary, aah! Yes. Toilets are high security amenities in the Imperium :)

Teresa Cypher said...

Haha! I read Johanna's comment and immediately went back and scanned for the "explosive" I must have missed. Ya gotta love Johanna! I read, "Losing Beauty" and have to say, Johanna is a great writer :-)

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