WOW.. some more shit China can steal...
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(CNN) — A push for high-tech passports might mean lowering U.S. security standards.
Could outsourcing passport production pose a security threat?
Your passport used to be made in America, but because of 9/11 all passports now must be fitted with electronic chips so they are harder for terrorists to fake.
However, in trying to make passports more secure, the U.S. is outsourcing the job to foreign companies. Security experts fear blank chips could be stolen or tampered with.
"If bad guys got a hold of those blanks and properly filled them out and processed them and you had corruption involved then what you really have is the keys to the kingdom sitting in a foreign country," said Michael Cutler from Immigration Studies.
The Government Printing Office says U.S. companies don't have the state-of-the art technology. So, it gets European companies to make computer chips in Singapore and Taipei. They are then sent to Thailand and inserted into passport covers along with a wireless antenna. Those blank covers and blank chips go back to the U.S. where your data and photo are added.
Congress is sounding alarm bells.
In a letter to the GPO inspector general, Congressman John Dingel is demanding to know whether this would pose "a significant national security threat and raise questions about the integrity of the entire e-passport program."
Smart-track — the Dutch based company producing U.S. passports in Thailand — says its facility is securely built according to U.S. standards and each passport chip is tracked.
In a statement, the GPO says "the materials are moved via a secure transportation means, including armored vehicles."
The State Department says there is no reason to be concerned.
"When they arrive in the United States all you have in front of you is a blue piece of plastic that is the standard size of anyone's passport in the entire world and a chip that has nothing on it and it could be the same equivalent of a CD-Rom that you could buy anywhere,” said Pat Kennedy of the U.S. State Department.
Smart-Track — the Dutch company in Thailand — says it is building a new production facility in Minnesota. It will be up and running by this summer.
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(CNN) — A push for high-tech passports might mean lowering U.S. security standards.
Could outsourcing passport production pose a security threat?
Your passport used to be made in America, but because of 9/11 all passports now must be fitted with electronic chips so they are harder for terrorists to fake.
However, in trying to make passports more secure, the U.S. is outsourcing the job to foreign companies. Security experts fear blank chips could be stolen or tampered with.
"If bad guys got a hold of those blanks and properly filled them out and processed them and you had corruption involved then what you really have is the keys to the kingdom sitting in a foreign country," said Michael Cutler from Immigration Studies.
The Government Printing Office says U.S. companies don't have the state-of-the art technology. So, it gets European companies to make computer chips in Singapore and Taipei. They are then sent to Thailand and inserted into passport covers along with a wireless antenna. Those blank covers and blank chips go back to the U.S. where your data and photo are added.
Congress is sounding alarm bells.
In a letter to the GPO inspector general, Congressman John Dingel is demanding to know whether this would pose "a significant national security threat and raise questions about the integrity of the entire e-passport program."
Smart-track — the Dutch based company producing U.S. passports in Thailand — says its facility is securely built according to U.S. standards and each passport chip is tracked.
In a statement, the GPO says "the materials are moved via a secure transportation means, including armored vehicles."
The State Department says there is no reason to be concerned.
"When they arrive in the United States all you have in front of you is a blue piece of plastic that is the standard size of anyone's passport in the entire world and a chip that has nothing on it and it could be the same equivalent of a CD-Rom that you could buy anywhere,” said Pat Kennedy of the U.S. State Department.
Smart-Track — the Dutch company in Thailand — says it is building a new production facility in Minnesota. It will be up and running by this summer.
