What's In Your Passport? ePassport And Credit Card Protector Brand Expands Reach To Calm Fears

VAULT security brand allays concerns about EPassports and Biometric Chips by increasing availability

It turns out what you don’t know might actually hurt you. If you live in the US and Canada, and increasingly around the world, you may have a contactless integrated circuit embedded in your passport.

If your passport has been issued since Oct 26 2006 in the US, or since July 1 2013 in Canada, your passport is able to transmit all of your personal data – including facial, finger print, and iris recognition – without coming into direct contact with a reader. It does this via an RFID chip that holds all the information on your passport data page, as well as a biometric chip, that holds all of the ‘biological identifiers’ of a traveller. All of this information can be transmitted, and read, wirelessly. Unfortunately in 2015, this is becoming easier and easier to a wider and wider group of people with the wrong intentions.

When asked about the level of risk to travelers, VAULT’s security specialist Leo Hamel said, “It’s important that people know what they’re carrying, and how easy it is to steal. The fact is, no one has to reach into your pocket any more – all they need is a scanner from the internet to completely steal your identity.”

VAULT, who also makes credit card protector sleeves, launched in the US market this year, and they are now readying to expand by reaching out to their Canadian neighbours.

Says Hamel, “Canadians are world citizens. They travel a lot, and yet many don’t realize they’re carrying around contactless RFID chip in their passports. It makes them vulnerable to Identity theft in an entirely new way, but It’s also very easy to protect them. That’s why we feel it’s so important to expand into Canada. Yes, we profit, but we also truly want people to be safe.”

VAULT’s credit card and Passport protector sleeves offer triple layer construction using copper, aluminum and triple polyester coated paper to block incoming electromagnetic Interference and make them resistant to puncture, water and tearing.

Sets of 10 credit card sleeves and 2 passport sleeves go for $15.95. They are currently only available on line through Amazon, and according to Hamel, as of August 2015, they’ll be available to Canadians too.