| by JD Nutt, Web-Editor |
| Report last updated on May
19th, 2008 -
Oklahoma City, OK. |
| L-1 Identity Solutions announced
that it won the $107 million State Department contract. |
| The new government
passport cards for road and sea travel to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean
pose a threat to national security because they can be easily copied or altered. |
|
Scheduled to be issued by the State Department this
summer, the electronic passport
cards resemble a credit card and include a photo of the
user as well as a radio frequency identification chip (RFID) containing data. It will serve as a substitute for a regular passport book for U.S.
citizens who travel frequently to the above mentioned destinations.
|
| The US Department of State indicates in
their report: "There will be no personal information written to the
RFID chip itself. This chip will point to a stored record in secure
government databases". |
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| Adults who already have a valid passport
may apply for the card as a passport renewal and pay only $20.
First-time applicants will pay $45 for adult cards and $35 for
children. |
| Security
experts interviewed by the Washington
Times indicate that the new cards are extremely vulnerable to
counterfeiting or alteration and therefore pose a serious threat to U.S.
security. One former FBI agent who spent nearly two decades countering
credit card fraud says there is “no security with these cards.” |
| A former chief intelligence officer for
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who monitored fraudulent government
documents at the agency, points out that the cards are poorly designed.
Instead of featuring a counterfeit proof special optical security strip,
the government opted for the radio frequency identification chip, which he
says is “extremely risky.” |
| Even members of Congress from both
parties have expressed serious concerns about the new cards, addressing
the issues in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. |
| Noting that the bipartisan September 11
Commission report states that travel documents are as important as weapons
for global terrorists, the lawmakers wrote that they need to be confident
that the cards cannot be compromised by terrorists, drug smugglers, human
traffickers and others who can do us harm. |
| The State Department will move forward
with its plan to begin producing the cards next month and distributing
them around July 2008. |
| Report Source(s): |
| http://www.travel.state.gov/passport/ppt_card/ppt_card_3926.html |
| http://ir.l1id.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=298518 |
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