The Trouble with RFID 424
wintermute42 writes "Simson Garfinkel, author of Practical Unix & Internet Security along with Gene Spafford and Alan Schwartz,
has an article in The Nation on RFID tags. They're not just for tracking stuff. They can track you too."
Re:Only if... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RFID Zapper? (Score:3, Informative)
Interestingly though i doubt many RFID tags would stand up to a hot wash, plenty of water with detergent and a big motor as an EM source nearby driving it might well fry it... Dunno the thought just occured to me - anyone got any ideas how physically tough the chips are?
The best way would probably be to have a big magnet at home or maybe move to a house under a supergrid power line
Re:Anyone with two feet and perhaps access to a ca (Score:1, Informative)
small rfid collectors can easily be installed all over an area and YES a rfid can be read from farther away if the reader is designed to do so. I did it with prox-cards that are rfid access cards at work.. I can get a 5 foot read range without any difficulty.
read EVERY rfid passing by point A and B searching for a specific number is easy (the rfid in the bvd's the target is wearing... wow he hasn't changed them in 3 days!) and we can digitally collect your habits.
and I can easily get almost EVERY rfid number you have by installing a reader near your home.
none of these need to transmit, just simply collect the data and I can download and parse at my leisure. the reader can be made as small as a kids' lunchbox and easily hidden to erad a 5 foot range, I'm beting that if I used more current electronics and DSP chips I can make one that will reade most every rfid in a 15 foot radius, taking multiple reads while you stand there for a couple of seconds.
It's easy to do, and only takes a moderate EE to do it.
They're supposed to withstand it. (Score:5, Informative)
They disconnect their antenna if they sense a surge to protect their circuitry.
And it makes sense -- if you're using these for tracking merchandice, you wouldn't want some shoplifter taking the RFID equivalent to a tazer with them, shorting out the RFIDs, and then walking out with your product.
(personally, I didn't see anything new from this article than any of the other articles posted before on the subject. I don't think there have been particular suggestions of targeting window shoppers, but the general proximity issues have mentioned repeatedly before)
Consumer group against RFID (CASPIAN)... (Score:4, Informative)
RFID trials in the UK (Score:2, Informative)
The scheme used intelligent tags that "hold just the number unique to each garment. When scanned against an M&S database, the tag would only give information related to the product's size, style or colour." Check out the full story at http://www.silicon.com/software/security/0,390246
Re:Only a problem if you never change clothes (Score:5, Informative)
Sure, you change clothes, but what about your phone? What happens when you wear the same pair of shoes with different clotes? The data warehouse ties that serial number in with your profile and builds a profile of all the items you own. There's not an easy way to eacape that.
I work in datawarehousing. We have a system that processes about a billion transactions a day. Each record is far mor complex than than a simple RFID and station ID. We also tie multiple records together into transactions. The scenaro above could be very real.
Re:What is the range.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Tracking? No, more like targetting! (Score:3, Informative)
So, totally unlike the inroads that have been made with pinpointing the location of mobile phones?
It doesn't take a genius (note: I don't mean you) to figure out that it's not the application of something that matters, but the possible application, and given that corruption exists, and the ability to track will exist, someone will use it.
Hell, just go take a look at how much tracking has infiltrated the internet from the early days of relative anonymity; historically the people with the ability to do tracking have tended to just do it.
Rosie Ruiz (Score:4, Informative)
I talked to one of the runners last year about it and we were laughing over the story. we also have a lot of ham radio operators in the city who broadcast results as they're anounced; i'm wondering what's next with RFID. Will hardcore athletes just have permanent chips in their bodies? Or will they be embedded in the sneakers?
This has already been addressed (Score:3, Informative)
Positive Step for the Logistics Industry (Score:3, Informative)
RFID in use (Score:2, Informative)
As a sidenote, nearly every system I've seen intended for sales related uses kills the tags at the register when the item is sold by design. It's intended to help with inventory and keep theft down. If you stop and think, stores don't want to piss off consumers, and nothing pisses people off more than invading privacy.
Use a microwave (Score:3, Informative)
For a more considered debunking of most of this: (Score:2, Informative)
Probably illegal (Score:3, Informative)
In the U.S. it is against the law to own/operate a device whose sole purpose is to interfere with communication across the radio spectrum. The obvious exceptions are the military and other govt. agencies. I think that the "jammer" would violate the law. However, if the jammer wasn't really a "jammer" but a device that would generate a localised EMP pulse, you could permanently disable the tag. That oddly wouldn't land you in jail, as they would have to prove that the tag wasn't "broken" and that you did it.