Electronic cards replacing food stamps

There is an article in the New York Times today (registration required) about electronic cards replacing paper food stamps.

Electronic cards are the sesame to a vast array of services.All these electronic cards represent a different portal to a particular aspect of an individual's identity, and all contain, embedded in their electronic components, the identity of this person. It is as our identity is bursting, producing all these different cards, and each of them contains information about our "basic" identity, name, address, and maybe SSN.

My main interest right now is identity theft (the subject of my Ph.D's thesis). So I wonder: could these cards be used in an identity theft scheme? It is true, as the article points out, that these cards are likely to reduce frauds perpetrated by the user. But is the user now at risk because of these cards?