Loonie opportunity
Slashdot mentions a CIBC article that three US defense contracters traveling through Canada have discovered that they were carrying a bugged Canadian coin (a Loonie or one dollar piece). The coins had tiny RFID chips embedded inside them.
This is a little bizarre because RFID has limited range (2-30 feet depending on the antenna). You couldn't track someone across an airport, for instance. These coins would seem to serve one major purpose--fingering the person carrying them for a short period of time as a target. I say "short period of time" because the subject might very well spend the mony. Although as an American who travels extensively in Canada, I've found that most Americans psychologically don't think of coins when they buy things bigger than a pack of gum.
I don't know if the story's true or not, but it's certainly interesting. My suspicion is that it was done by an intelligence agency (probably Canadian) to mark a target for commercial intelligence collection. It's too complicated and sophisticated a ploy for an individual to do and too expensive for most PIs or law enforcement types to even contemplate.
It really makes you wonder about those new RFID-enabled US passports, though.
Posted on January 11, 2007
