Wallet-sized Firewall
Protect your Credit Cards from Wireless Assault
By Patricia Kutza
Sometime in the late eighties, before the advent of digital
cameras, I started reading about dismayed travelers whose precious film memories
were nuked by X-rays emitted by the latest generation of baggage security
detectors. I reacted by buying one of those X-ray shielded bags and loaded it
with my film canisters. I’ll never know if I was just lucky or that they really
did the job. But I do know that none of my film was every ruined since I
started using it, if you don’t count some of the lousy that I alone are
responsible for making!
 I don’t carry that bag anymore, having eschewed those
camera rolls for the joys of infinite frames offered by my digital equipment. I
do carry another shield now. Dick Tracy would love it since, to the naked eye,
it looks like any other quality leather wallet. And because its’ job, like his,
is to ward off the nefarious intentions of thieves.
I carry a DataSafeÒ
Wallet, a product introduced by Kena Kai, an Anaheim-based company that designs
travel accessories. Its’ padded red Italian leather surface could pass for a
host of similar designs. But encased within it is a radio frequency (RF)
shielding lining that acts like a firewall, protecting my credit cards from
illegal access.
Just like those X-rays that could strip my film of its
‘identity’, there are virtual pick-pockets nowadays that need not be ‘in your
face’ to do their dastardly deeds. ‘Contactless credit cards currently being
introduced to consumers no longer need to be ‘swiped to be read’. They are
embedded with radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips and are vulnerable to
skimming attacks that harvest names and credit card details by anyone who has a
reader to access its unencrypted data. So potentially the data from one of these
cards can be ripped off you by that unassuming traveler next to you while you
both wait for your luggage at the carousel.
Kena Kai offers a number of styles that retail between $40
and $180. I like my zippered option with lots of interior card slots, pockets
and a zippered exterior coin pocket. This company has also rolled out a
DataSafeÒ Passport Wallet as well as a
microfiber bandana that it claims is five times more absorbent than cotton. Now
I just need a product that will protect me from big-ticket impulsive purchases
and I’ll be all set!
For more information:
Kena Kai
www.kenakai.com
714.782.7984
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