RFID Security

Contributed by Joanne C. Kelleher

I try to contribute to the RFID Security blog every week. Today is Friday and I realized it has been over 2 weeks since my last entry. Why? Recently the news from the RFID industry has been slow and kind of boring (or for some, depressing) while the topic of cybersecurity has been hot.

Here are a few topics that have caught my eye recently:

Susan Lyon wrote a piece for Sustainable Industries called Privacy challenges could stall smart grid. This was the first article I have seen that has addressed the privacy issues around these embedded devices.
http://www.sustainableindustries.com/technology/46274897.html

On 6/1, the Department of Homeland Security expanded its use of electronic passports, enhanced drivers licenses and other RFID-enabled identification documents at US border crossing points. This is really old news but privacy concerns about the technology have resurfaced.
http://fcw.com/articles/2009/06/01/dhs-expands-rfid-use-at-borders-today.aspx

A new working group “aims to take a subset of the Air Transport Association’s format for low-memory tags and develop guidelines on using RFID that can be ready by year-end. They will include minimum requirements for data, read range and security, as well as instructions on how to mount tags on parts.”  Aircraft manufacturers don’t want to store detailed records on the RFID tags due to concerns “about the complexity of synchronizing the data” with back office systems.  But if I were them, I would also be concerned about privacy issues too.  Do they want competitors or the public reading their aircraft part maintencence records?  A properly secured tag would solve this problem.
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=mro&id=news/RFID6049.xml&headline=Airlines%20Develop%20Guidelines%20For%20RFID%20on%20Parts

John Burnell wrote a nice article for RFID Update which provides an analysis of vendor activity in the smart label market. See Slowing Sales Bring Change to RFID Smart Label Suppliers – http://www.rfidupdate.com/articles/index.php?id=1804. On a related note Zebra is implementing layoffs – http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-biz-zebra,0,4812801.story.

The Chinese government has announced they implanted RFID chips in Manchurian tigers at the King Palace Zoo. This topic isn’t security related, but I questioned why you would need to do this when there are only 3 tigers on the property and 30 Manchurian tigers left in the entire world. Don’t they all have unique markings? “The move is in response to a national campaign launched by the State Forestry Administration last year that called on all zoos to implant digital ID chips in 17 precious species of animals, including tigers, pandas, golden monkeys, cranes and swans.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/31/content_11463868.htm

Happy Birthday to the UPC bar code which turns 35 this month, according to an announcement from GS1 US.  When bar code technology was implemented it also triggered privacy concerns.
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090601005784&newsLang=en