Wireless Pickpocketing: Portmanteau Answer

[Peter Tomlinson]

Roland Perry wrote:
>  In article <46483BEF.6050302@bbk.ac.uk>, ken <k.brown@bbk.ac.uk>
>  writes
>
> >> A metal case, such as one used for carrying business cards
> > would be a pretty good protection.
> >
> > A business opportunity?
> >
> > Faraday cage wallets?
>
>  Already suggested by many as a 'solution' to USA rfid-equipped
>  passports. Interestingly, I have seen several notices at passport
>  control offices around Europe saying that people should "remove
>  passports from wallets" before presenting them to staff.

A single layer of metal or metallised material should suffice. Recent 
tests of 'traditional' holographic film as used for overlays on some 
security documents showed that it severely affected the performance of 
contactless smart cards when applied to them. Non-metallic holographic 
film is now available for use where smart cards or chip-embedded 
documents have to have security overlays.

Peter