The US government began issuing new electronic passports this week that include Radio Frequency Identification Technology (RFID) to store citizens’ personal information.

Meanwhile, at the Black Hat hacker conference last month in Las Vegas, a security consultant demonstrated a hack of such a passport and also described a simple, inexpensive cloning process.  I previously discussed similar issues here (while I was at the fortune tellers conference in Las Vegas – just kidding!).

The State Department insists these passports include additional security features not found in the Las Vegas hacker conference version. These include complicated technologies designed to prevent modification of the chip, a special key for access and a randomized unique ID feature to diminish tracking of the passport holder.

"The Department of State is confident that the new e-passport, including biometrics and other improvements, will take security and travel facilitation to a new level," said a Department statement.

Over-the-air signals will be transmitted from the passports, and this concerns researchers such as Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien, "For people who know what they’re doing, [such a hack] is not really hard."

Kudos to the government for putting technology to good use.  It’s easy to be a cynic, and in my last article on this very same technology I was.  But any technology that can be used to help keep us safe and secure sounds good to me.  Let the hackers keep testing it and if they find flaws that will be an opportunity – not a failure – but an opportunity to improve the product.  We’re not talking about office software here, but national security.  So bring on the hackers and the cynics.  Find all the weak links in the new passport.  This is just the beginning; version 1.0.  Just as our currency must periodically change to avoid pirating, so shall the passport.