Envelope manufacturer National Envelope Corp. has developed a new product line called Smart Card Guard. The RF-blocking sleeves are designed to hold cards or other media containing high-frequency (13.56 MHz) RFID inlays, when mailed or carried inside an individual's purse, wallet or pocket. The company is initially targeting sales to financial services companies and government agencies around the world. All major credit cards in the United States are now available with RFID inlays for making RFID-based (contactless) payments. Newly issued U.S. passports contain RFID inlays designed to hold data related to the passport holder. The U.S. State Department expects to send 17 million of these passports to citizens this year alone.
The Smart Card Guard sleeves contain a thin layer of metallic material preventing the penetration of radio frequency signals directed toward the envelope, thereby making the RFID inlay unreadable. The company says the Smart Card Guard material has undergone extensive testing by InfoGard Laboratories, located in San Luis Obispo, Calif. The InfoGard tests showed that the material successfully prevented RF communications between RFID interrogators and the RFID-enabled cards inside the sleeve, National Envelope says, even when placed right against the reader's antenna.
The company notes that some researchers have found a means of accessing data encoded to RFID inlays in payment and identity cards, despite the use of data encryption to secure the data.
