RFID?

I didn’t know that the government was planning to put RFID chips into passports starting in 2006. I think that’s a silly idea, especially after reading the article.

Schneier talks about a boatload of the various hurdles in making RFID a more secure type of chip, and a lot of the measures that the government has planned sound like fairly good ideas. The problem, though, is that there’s no reason the chips need to be broadcasters. There are a wealth of options available for extra data and security without using RFID---credit cards in England (and probably other parts of europe) almost all come with an ID chip and pin number associated with them, and the extra layer of data and security is there without the broadcast risk.

In an age where identity theft gets easier every day, we need to be careful not to create opportunities that don’t have to exist.