Security Issue with Passports and Credit Cards

Wanted to alert you all to a security issue I just learned about. Some passports and credit cards have embedded RFID (radio frequency identification) chips that transmit a signal, as do work badges, packages, etc. Scammers can pick up the signal and steal your identity. I don't have time to research all the issues, but am summarizing the little bit I've heard and providing links to more info if you want to look into it and verify what's here.

There are cheap and easy ways to shield the chip. See the 3 easy steps for protecting your passport with aluminum foil at http://epic.org/privacy/rfid/
Or you can buy shields at places like REI, Amazon or travel-supply shops. Passport shields run about $5; shields for credit cards are cheaper.

For more information, see:

• Researchers See Privacy Pitfalls in No-Swipe Credit Cards - by the NY Times
• RFID-enabled credit card theft - on CNet, which I consider a reliable source; a good article with an awful layout; I copied the text into a Word file that I uploaded to GoogleDrive.
• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems - by EPIC, a well regarded organization whose privacy enewsletter I was already subscribing to
• House of cards: Why your accounts are vulnerable to thieves - by Consumer Reports
• A Threat Analysis of RFID Passports by ACM, the Association for Computing Machine, the "world’s largest educational and scientific computing society"; I used to belong, and I trust their information: The long article says in part: "Six pieces of information can be stolen from the RFID chip on a U.S. passport: your name, nationality, gender, date of birth, place of birth, and a digitized photograph.1 Numerous problems of identity theft could arise from someone taking that information, but this article focuses on the financial risk."
• What is RFID? by the RFID Journal, which I've never heard of but has a nice summary about the technology.

Lots more info on the Web, including on Wikipedia.