http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/13/pf/rfid_passports/index.htm?cnn=yes
Christian Zappone
"The State Department expresses confidence in "e-Passports" while technologists fret about their security risks. Imagine being overseas and your identity being available for the taking - your nationality, your name, your passport number. Everything. That's the fear of privacy and security specialists now that the State Department plans to issue "e-Passports" to American travelers beginning in late August. Radio Frequency Identification technology, indicated by the symbol, is to be standard in U.S. passports by August 2006. They'll have radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and are meant to cut down on human error of immigration officials, speed the processing of visitors and safeguard against counterfeit passports. Yet critics are concerned that the security benefit of RFID technology, which combines silicon chips with antennas to make data accessible via radio waves, could be vastly outweighed by security threats to the passport holder."
