Verisign to run National RFID Directory

JamesD_UK writes "Verisign has been given the contract to develop a national RFID directory by EPCGlobal. Under the directory scheme each company will maintain an Object Name Service analogous to DNS with Verisign running the root server. Verisign has already setup the infrastructure at six different global sites."

CueCat vs. EPC Directory?

[WebTurtle]

It seems that this is just a slightly different implementation of an old idea. The only really interesting thing is that they are searching for RFIDs using the same redundancy as DNS.

What are the similarities between CueCat and the EPC Directory project? It seems to me that the only difference is the scale of the implementation.

Is that accurate?

Great...

[kcbrown]

<sarcasm>
I can't think of anyone I'd trust more...
</sarcasm>

Seriously, it's a wonder anyone trusts them with anything anymore, especially with the way they've abused their position as DNS registrar and TLD maintainer. I certainly don't. They'll have to do a complete 180 for an extended period of time (many years) to ever get my business again.

Free Groceries

[fuzzybunny]

Cool, does this mean that when their intermediate root RFID numbers expire, we get free stuff? Or does it just mean that the cash register will pop up error messages when they try to verify my purchases?

Re:lol...

[Hieronymus Howard]

. I'm wondering when the terrorists will catch up and build booby traps that only explodes when the RFID scanner attached to the booby trap detects an e.g. US-american citizen nearby

Better still, if it was really clever it could read the tags in their clothing too. So a bus-load of obese american tourists turns up, the rfid reader detects 40 US citizens with waist sizes of more than 80 inches and BOOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well, there goes my karma

HH
--

Re:lol...

[ReelOddeeo]

I'm wondering when the terrorists will catch up and build booby traps that only explodes when the RFID scanner attached to the booby trap detects an e.g. US-american citizen nearby

Someone could even set us up the boom such that it only explodes when brought into proximity of a specific RIAA CD, or a specific Gilette razor. Highly targeted.

Credit for This Idea

[tspauld98]

Any credit for this idea has to go to George Orwell. Who would've guessed that he was just 20 years too early on his prediction?

I remember reading 1984 in 1983 and thinking, "Well, thank God that could never happen." I don't think it's funny anymore. Somebody stop the madness.

tims

Re:EPC lookups for what?

[mabhatter654]

It's what the mega corps like Walmart want. The "wheelers and dealers" want a system where everything can be tracked by barcode/RFID so they can get more market share....That way they can handle more diverse product mix without actually having to know what it is or who they got it from...the computers just figure it out. And the best part is all the paperwork [+ verisign hassle!] is forced on the little guy...so the big guys can beat them up over price!

You do have a great point about tag activation...I must by 75% of my stuff from the local department/grocery chain. I can see it now...getting jumped for "stealing" my own dirty underwear because they reactivated the tags. I suppose they could tally a difference of tags between when you enter and exit...but that's still complicated.

Re:Too much control by one company?

[TheLink]

It disappoints me to see that Verisign keeps getting these sort of stuff. Why?

They don't do their current jobs very well, why keep giving them new national-scale or global-scale jobs?

Re:Thats nice.

[ajs]

I always assumed that Verisign was a US government front company. I guess this makes it pretty clear.

Think of it this way, if you were in the FBI, advising the White House about upcoming threats to domestic security, what would you say about a growing global network of computers that it's pretty clear all business will rely on within the next 100 years? Would you advise that the government find a way to have a controling hand close to the heart of such a beast? Would you allow the military to give up control of such a thing whithout maintaining some sort of back-door power?

It's not so much about conspiracy, as about the way you manage resources. Verisign has either been involved in or bought the companies involved in the technologies most likely to scare the government (PGP, DNS, RFID, being a CA). This combination of interests and amazingly lucrative and monopolistic contract awards is fairly damning.

To jump back to topic, adding in RFID means that whoever has access to Verisign now has access to a giant database of what amount to tracer bugs planted (soon) in most of the items that you buy. Just think of the harm caused by the most obvious uses....

I really think that a national database of RFIDs should not be allowed. We should have a national allocation scheme like we do with Ethernet cards, based on industry standardization, but NEVER a database of final numbers.

Verisign to spin off NSI?

[n-baxley]

Didn't I hear something not too long ago that Versign was going to spin off the Network Solutions company? At least then there would be two seperate companies running these central databases.

Why do we need an EPC?

[ciphertext]

Why not simply adapt the UNSPSC codes to work with RFID technologies? UNSPSC codes are already used around the world for working with material goods. In addition, all of the world's ERP systems including the market leading SAP R/3 support UNSPSC codes. So, instead of receiving a UNSPSC code through a Purchase Order, Invoice, or Purchase Requisition, the software would receive the RFID transmission of its UNSPSC code.

Wouldn't it be possible for companies to buy their own custom coded or blank RFID tags anyway? Who says you would have to subscribe to this format in the first place? Already there are competing standards on how e-commerce should be used. We have ebXML, cXML, and cbML. Sure it would be better if there was a single standard, but there isn't a way to force businesses to use such a standard. Why would RFID and EPC be any different?

Finally, if I use SAP (for example) why would I need my RFID tags or any software to communicate with Verisign? Why wouldn't I want my R/3 system to be "the system of record" as it is for my accounting?