However, the GAO’s investigation proves that even the best technology can’t keep a country safe when the bureaucracy behind it fails. More than 70 countries have adopted the biometric passports, which officials describe as a revolution in immigration security. (When presented with the results of the GAO investigation, the State Department agreed that there was a “major vulnerability” in the passport issuance process and agreed to study the matter.)
The investigator then used one of the fake passports to buy a plane ticket, obtain a boarding pass, and make it through a security checkpoint at a major U.S. In another, he used the Social Security number of a fictitious 5-year-old child created for a previous investigation, along with an ID showing that he was 53 years old. In one case, he used the Social Security number of a man who had died in 1965. passports using fake names and fraudulent documents. Unfortunately, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), getting one of these supersecure passports under false pretenses isn’t particularly difficult for anyone with even basic forgery skills.Ī GAO investigator managed to obtain four genuine U.S. State Department has been issuing high-tech “e-passports,” which contain computer chips carrying biometric data to prevent forgery.
