DLP is getting interesting

We've all heard of incidents of data theft from lost laptops, lost backup tapes, hackers getting into email systems, etc. But how safe is your passport information?

We heard last week that the confidential passport information of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama had been breached. Now, there's news that the electronic passport information of perhaps 20 Americans has been breached.

I also read today that new US passports contain an RFID chip and an antenna designed to transmit information on the passport during screenings at the border. US passport production is outsourced to a company in the Netherlands that inserts the RFID chips, then passports are sent to another operation of the company in Thailand for the insertion of the antenna, after which the passports are sent to Washington, DC for final assembly. The company that assembles the passports revealed in October 2007 that someone in China had stolen its technology for the RFID chips used in passports.