People like Simitian who oppose further adoption of RFID technologies in the government sector often refer to a now-defunct pilot program operated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as further evidence that the tools aren't ready for widespread use.

As part of the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (U.S. VISIT) program, DHS used documents bearing RFID technology between 2005 and 2006 to help track the movement of individuals at several major land border crossings.

In a report issued on Jan. 31, 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) indicated that the RFID portion of the program had been halted based on concerns about the technologies' usefulness and security ramifications.

Like the HID proximity cards hacked by IOActive and those made by other popular vendors, the RFID technology used in the DHS pilot featured long-range radio frequency technology, which is considered by experts to be the most dangerous based on the ability for the devices' signals to be intercepted from as far as 30 feet away.

Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, a public policy think-tank based in Washington, helped author a DHS report that reviewed security and privacy issues related to the use of RFID within the U.S. VISIT program.