A series of security breaches in the European Union’s vaccine passport system has resulted in fraudulent health cards being issued to individuals such as SpongeBob Squarepants, Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse.
A European Commission spokesman on Friday acknowledged an error in the vaccine passport system and said Brussels was aware of “alleged fraudulent manipulation of the European code of the European Covid certificate”.
On Wednesday, Internet users claimed to have access to allegedly secure cryptographic keys used to generate QR codes for a block vaccine passport, also known as a Digital Green Pass.
To make fun of the security flaw, some pursuers created health cards with fictitious names like SpongeBob SquarePants and Adolph Hitler, France’s La Chaîne Info reported.
One of the violations of the system allegedly originated from a web portal in Northern Macedonia, which is not part of the European Union. integrated August into the vaccine passport system.
In order to prevent further infringements, EU Member States participating in the vaccine passport system have agreed to “block two fraudulent certificates so that the verification application considers them invalid” and to close the alleged Macedonian web portal. that he had no standard. security protocols.
Gaëtan Leurent, a cryptography expert at France’s National Institute for Digital Science and Technology (Inria), said the Macedonian portal was identifiable because “each country has one or more signatures and we find the key with each signature in each gateway.” .
Leurent added that it is crucial that any server with the option to unsubscribe from producing vaccine passports must be adequately secured for system operation.
Vaccine passports could actually increase the spread of coronavirus, a British government report notes https://t.co/DPoFdB3cJ3
– Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 27, 2021
Nevertheless, security deficiencies in the health card system also extend beyond northern Macedonia, as some forged passports, including those created for Mickey Mouse, appear elsewhere. The health card of the Disney icon appears to have originated in France, while others are said to have been forged in Poland.
It is assumed that health officials in the countries should be involved in the production of these passports. In response, authorities in Paris and Warsaw launched investigations.
The safety of vaccine passports in France has already been called into question, with the personal passports for the vaccine of President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Jean Castex leaked online last month.
Although recent security breaches do not appear to have compromised any citizens’ data, there are concerns that the EU and other governments could keep this data private.
In an interview with Breitbart London in March, DeleteMe CEO Rob Shavell he said: “Governments keep saying they provide a data service to their citizens and claim it will be protected, but we see that this information ends up in the data profiles available in Google searches.”
The privacy expert explained that “the systems we have are too complex and when this data is digitized in and out and replicated in the database of the country you are traveling to, with your own set of privacy protocols, you look into the growing universe.” data that cannot be secured.
The QR code for the personal passport for the vaccine of French President Emmanuel Macron has leaked to social networks, raising questions about the ability of the system to protect the health privacy of citizens. https://t.co/yKsUlNROsU
– Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) September 22, 2021
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