To help illustrate the seriousness of the situation to his colleagues in California's senate and state assembly, Simitian conducted a test in 2006 through which a security expert was hired to visit the state's capitol building in Sacramento and hack an RFID card system used to gain entry to the building's garage. The cards used in that test were made by Motorola.

"We're at the state capitol building in the post-9/11 environment, and we've spent millions to improve security, but in the space of several minutes, someone with a laptop can compromise the badge system," Simitian said in an interview with InfoWorld. "The main problem is that the issues aren't widely understood. That's why we've come back with five bills -- because I want to ensure I get to tell this story in every venue that I can; if we can sit down and explain the issue to people, they get it, but it's a hard, complex technical issue."

Simitian said that HID was involved in negotiating the terms of the bill vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger but said that the firm still refused to give the legislation its blessing.

The lawmaker labeled HID's move to stop the IOActive Black Hat briefing as proof of its "embarrassment" over the ease with which its products can be defeated.

As the son of a computer programmer and the recipient of several awards from the IT security industry, including an honor bestowed at the RSA 2007 conference earlier this month, Simitian said he hardly considers himself as conservative when it comes to promoting new technologies. He has a hard time understanding why Schwarzenegger and others have blocked laws that require "practical" security measures for the use of RFID.