cpast’s Comments

• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 7:09am

  Re: Sorry, access denied!

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  You don't need an ID to enter a Senate office building; they're open to the public (you do need one to go through the staff line, but that's just so that staff have a shorter line). For access control to offices, there's an RFID chip.
• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 7:07am

  Re:

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  Senate office buildings are open to the public. You need an ID to get in the staff entrance, but the staff entrance exists mostly so that staff don't have to wait in a huge line to get to work. Everyone goes through security (I'm not sure if Members themselves do, but Capitol Police officers know who is and who isn't a Member). In offices, you have to go by the front desk or use an RFID chip in the card to get in, and the people in a Senate office know who else works in their office.
• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 6:59am

  Re:

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  Senators don't need them so much; the Capitol Police can recognize them (and they have lapel pins to identify them, so the police know to think "is this a Senator"). Staff are another story.
• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 6:57am

  Re:

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  A huge portion of credit card theft involves stealing info for card-present transactions. This is pretty easy to do, because you can slap a skimmer on a credit card slot (including unattended card slots). You can't copy the info on a chip, so it protects against that.
  
  It doesn't provide perfect security against all forms of attack. It improves security against one of the most common forms of attack. Most attacks do not involve a clerk reading your card number; those are also easier to trace because you can trace lots of fraud back to the store where the clerk works. If you put a skimmer on someone else's card reader, tracing it back to the reader doesn't lead authorities to you.
• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 6:53am

  Re: This is genius!

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  Most staff don't use them for logging in to computers, although for all I know some might. If I had to guess, I'd say that it's probably a few who have actual login smartcards, and the rest have the picture of a chip so that all the IDs look the same.
• Apr 26th, 2017 @ 6:49am

  Re: I'm calling bullshit...

  on Senate ID Cards Use A Photo Of A Chip Rather Than An Actual Smart Chip
  These cards aren't used for logging into computers; the executive branch often uses smartcards for login (e.g. the CAC), but the Senate just has username/password. There is an RFID chip inside, but so does my college ID card.
  
  (My guess is that the picture is there because *some* staff do have actual smartcards for logging into computers, most staff don't need it so don't have it, but they get the picture printed so all the IDs look the same).