The U.S. is outsourcing the manufacture of its RFID passports to some questionable companies.
This is a great illustration of the maxim "security trade-offs are often made for non-security reasons." I can imagine the manager in charge: "Yes, it's insecure. But think of the savings!"
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times.
