Those of us in IT Security have had countless discussions about outsourcing Enterprise IT Security, especially when it involved allowing access to resources in other countries that might not be so strict when it comes to things like, oh corporate espionage or physical security. But did you ever stop to think about who is making our US State Department issued Passports? It’s not what you think!!!

If you had asked me last week, I would’ve said that it HAD to be someone in the US. Turns out, that’s not true. Jump over to the Washington Times’ Bill Gertz, who has uncovered that US Passport Assembly has been outsourced to multiple foreign countries. Read the full article here. I understand that RFID chips (like most other solid-state electronics these days) are made overseas. But shouldn’t we be shipping them back here for assembly? The GPO disagrees with the Times’ findings, as mentioned here, but Gertz and the Times still stand by the original story.  Feel free to weigh in…

Filed under: Identification, Privacy, Security