What Is the Perfect RFID Chip for National ID Cards?

Which type of chip would be the most secure for this application?

—Name withheld

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I’m not sure that there is any perfect or completely secure chip for any application, but RFID transponders utilizing the ISO 14443 standard were designed for short-range reading. NXP Semiconductors manufactures a version with encryption to protect data on a chip while it is being transmitted to a reader. National ID cards with RFID chips are more difficult to clone, but security involves many layers, including making a card tamper-proof and securing the data in a database, that is associated with the ID card’s serial number.

—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal