Feeling a little insecure about that RFID-chipped credit card or passport in your wallet? Rest easy. Chase Corp., a 61-year-old manufacturer of protective tapes and laminates, is bypassing the consumer route and targeting envelope and passport manufacturers with a new protective paper that will shield data from being surreptitiously tapped by just about any radio frequency, according to Jim Lordi, the founder of Paper Tyger, a division of Chase since 2003.

Paper Tyger announced its new RFID Shield in early June. Lordi said that Chase works with a number of leading envelope manufacturers that in turn work with banks that offer RFID-chipped smart cards, so developing a product for RFID seemed like a natural evolution.

The paper could be used to create sleeves that a card or passport would be tucked into, or envelopes that they would be sent through the mail in. The laminate in the paper would protect against errant readers trolling for personal or financial data.

"Chase Corp is amongst the leading producers of shielding materials for other industries and we also make paper that has a tear resistant, water resistant paper laminate so we combined those technologies and created a product to try and help solve the personal identity theft issue surrounding RFID chips used in smart cards and contactless credit cards," said Lordi, in Middlefield, Conn.

"We designed a product that protects them, that the owner would put in a sleeve. It couldn't be read and therefore their identity couldn't be stolen by anyone that wanted it."

The RFID Shield is a new three-layered material that is as strong and durable as synthetic but is actually the same feel and weight as regular paper so that it can be printed and converted in standard machinery. Because of that versatility Lordi envisions the paper could be used not only in envelopes or sleeves to shield hackers from information, but also in tags, labels and other packaging materials.

The RFID Shield has already been sold to envelope converters to be made into credit card sleeves. And Lordi, now the director of paper laminates, is in talks with passport manufacturers. But, as a story in the June 5 edition of RFID industry daily RFID Update points out, the inclusion of protective sleeves and envelopes will naturally lead to consumers questioning the security of their RFID-chipped card:

"One has to wonder if banks' deployment of protective liner for contactless credit cards would undermine their assurances that the cards are safe and secure," wrote the editors of RFID Update. "If the cards should be wrapped in a special sleeve, does that mean that consumers are at risk of identity or financial theft if they do not use a sleeve? Furthermore, if a consumer uses a sleeve, and then has to pull the card out of the sleeve to buy something with it, doesn't that additional labor defeat the very convenience contactless cards were meant to provide?"

The same questions have already been posed regarding ePassports. Banks, get those FAQ pages ready.