Stainless Steel Wallets

Stainless steel wallets are in your future.  Either that or aluminum foil.

Radio-frequency IDs or RFIDs are tags that include both an integrated circuit for storing and processing information and an antenna for receiving and transmitting a signal.  They are tiny little objects you can apply to any product, animal or person.  They are most often used in inventory tracking and management.

You probably are already familiar with the transponders many have on their windshields allowing them to speed through toll booths without stopping even as the information is captured and the charge for the toll will appear on your credit card statement.

Since 2006 RFID tags have been included in all new passports issued by the United States government.  After a demonstration that showed that passports could be read with special equipment from 33 feet away, various  barriers and encryption methods have been incorporated.  The Wikipedia entry explains more than I ever could.

Boing Boing video shows how anyone can swipe your credit card information and other personal data that is on any card employing RFID  by using a reader that cost on $8 on Ebay, just by getting "close to your ass."

The biggest threat to having your identity stolen remains the theft of many thousands of credit card numbers from websites.  Hacker Pablos Holman told TechRadar

“I don’t expect this to be a major threat for a while. People are stealing credit card numbers from websites and that’s still pretty easy,” he says, before adding, somewhat more ominously “with a bigger antenna hooked up to this I can go into Starbucks and get the name of everyone in there.

That's why I say stainless steel wallets are in your future.  Keep an eye out for them.