RFID Passports: Not Dead Yet

State Dept Adds Protections But Still Clings To RFID Fantasy

Frank E. Moss, Deputy Assistant Secretary Of State For Passport Services, days after denouncing RFID passport security concerns as "poppycock", admits RFID passports have a problem – the first step toward recovery.

A battle in the war against RFID beacons in US passports has been won.  The State Department now admits that their previous RFID proposal would put Americans at risk and is now considering other options.

That's the good news.  The bad news is that the State Department continues to blindly cling to the false promise of planting RFID chips in passports.

In order to make RFID technology safer, the State Department claims to be planning two things.  First, they say will put a metallic lining inside RFID passport covers -- a tinfoil hat, so to speak -- to prevent the passport from being snooped when closed.  In addition, they claim the RFID chip itself will be encrypted so that it cannot be read when the passport is open: the chip will only broadcast your personal information once it's been swiped through an optical reader.

Earth to State Department: if you're going to manually scan our passports, why bother using RFID?