RFID Privacy and Security

RFID Privacy and Security

RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification) is a compact wireless technology poised to transform the world of commerce. It's an inexpensive chip that's readable up to several meters away. As a next-generation barcode, RFID will automate inventory control, cutting costs for retailers and manufacturers. Whether you know it or not, RFID is already making inroads into everyday life.

Privacy Risks for Consumers and Enterprises

Privacy advocates decry the risks of RFID: silent physical tracking of consumers and inventorying of their possessions. For businesses too, RFID introduces new privacy and security risks -- and a whole new dimension to corporate espionage.

RSA Security's authentication and access-management products can already help businesses authenticate RFID readers and secure backend access to their RFID infrastructure today. RSA Laboratories is now researching new techniques to help protect the privacy and security of businesses and consumers in RFID environments. We offer Professional Services engagements to protect today’s RFID deployments and prepare for tomorrow’s.

RSA Laboratories RFID Resources

An Introduction to RFID

• What is RFID?
• RFID, a Vision of the Future
• Thwarting Corporate Espionage
• Protecting Consumer Privacy

RFID In-Depth

• Frequently Asked Questions
• Technical Characteristics

Research Papers from RSA Labs

• EPC RFID Tags in Security Applications: Passport Cards, Enhanced Drivers Licenses, and Beyond
• Unidirectional Key Distribution Across Time and Space with Applications to RFID Security
• The Vision of Secure RFID
• Covert Channels in Privacy-Preserving Identification Systems
• The Security Implications of VeriChip Cloning
• Cryptanalysis of Two Lightweight RFID Authentication Schemes
• Vulnerabilities in first-generation RFID-enabled credit cards
• Defining Strong Privacy for RFID
• Shoehorning Security into the EPC Standard
• RFID Security and Privacy: A Research Survey
• RFID Privacy: A Technical Primer for the Non-Technical Reader
• Security Issues in E-Passports
• Authenticating Pervasive Devices with Human Protocols
• High-Power Proxies for Enhancing RFID Privacy and Utility
• RFID Privacy: An Overview of Problems and Proposed Solutions
• Security Analysis of a Cryptographically-Enabled RFID Device
• Strengthening EPC Tags Against Cloning
• The Blocker Tag: Selective Blocking of RFID Tags for Consumer Privacy
• Soft Blocking: Flexible Blocker Tags on the Cheap
• Minimalist Cryptography for RFID Tags
• RFID for Euro Banknotes
• "Yoking-Proofs" for RFID Tags
• Universal Re-encryption

Guest Columns, Blogs and Other

• An Interview with RFID Security Expert Ari Juels
• Borderline Security
• "Prosthetic Biometrics": Microchips Under Your Skin
• RFID: Menace in the Far North
• Attack on a Cryptographic RFID Device
• A Bit of Privacy

Presentations

• RFID Security: In the Shoulder and on the Loading Dock
• RFID: The Problems of Cloning and Counterfeiting
• RFID: Security and Privacy for Five-Cent Computers

RSA Laboratories RFID Research In the News