Passports with embedded RFID coming to US

msn.com | March 14 2006

RFID advancements are making the technology reach many new possibilities. They've considered putting them in employee ID cards, so there's no need to swipe to get past security checkpoints. They've started putting them in student cards in certain regions of Asia, and now it seems that your typical American passport is going to have an embedded RFID chip as early as this October.

The RFID chips found in these new passports will carry all the 411 that the paper copy contains, including all your personal information and a digital version of the photograph. According to government officials, this will streamline the process because scanning and cross-referencing through security databases are easier.

That said, security issues clearly come to the forefront. As anyone who makes use of a Wi-Fi network at home or at work will tell you, there is always the concern of people hacking in. With RFID chips embedded into passports, identity theft can be done wirelessly because your private information is just up there in the air for criminals to grab. In fact, prototype Dutch RFID passports failed the test when a security firm cracked the encryption with not too much effort.

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