Posted on 04/11/2004 11:55:45 PM PDT by endthematrix
RSA Security, best-known for its encryption algorithms and an eponymous security conference, thinks it has a way to block RFID tags from being read by prying eyes.
At issue here is how to turn off the tags once they leave a store. One could use brute force, cutting or ripping them off. Or there's old-fashioned hacking: Metal (think aluminum foil) disrupts RFID signals for the kind of tags that would probably be used on consumer goods in a store.
What RSA has devised is a blocker tag that basically sends a mini-denial of service attack to RFID readers. The readers can read only one tag a time, so RSA's blocker tag sends multiple signals at once, confusing the reader and making it impossible for it to read the actual tagged products that might be in a consumer's shopping bag. As RSA has currently devised the tag, it would be implanted in bags given to customers at checkout lines and would then prevent readers in other stores from reading any data.
Meanwhile, RFID vendors are also working on ways to give consumers peace of mind about the chips. "There will be ways and choices given to consumers. That has to happen," said Christophe Duverne, vice president of marketing and sales for identification products at Philips Semiconductors, the largest maker of RFID chips.
Duverne said future generations of the company's chips will have easy-to-trigger kill features. And he said Philips is talking with privacy groups. "These guys are very sensible people, and this is new territory. We need to take their concerns seriously."
Just in case, remember that a swift tap with a hammer does very bad things to RFID chips
I've wanted to say this in a practical sense, ever since I left the truck shop 30 years ago.
"If you don't have any tin foil, get a bigger hammer!"
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