RFID Gazette

Users should beware of certain RFID tags, like those used for remote keyless entry for cars or gas station swipe passes. The tags in question are part of Texas Instruments' Digital Signature Transponder system. This system uses relatively simple encoding that criminals can easily decipher, potentially allowing them to steal cars or get free products where swipe passes are used for payment. According to TechCentral:

“We’ve found that the security measures built into these devices are inadequate,” said Avi Rubin, technical director of the Johns Hopkins Information Security Institute.

“Millions of tags that are currently in use by consumers have an encryption function that can be cracked without requiring direct contact. An attacker who cracks the secret key in an RFID tag can then bypass security measures and fool tag readers in cars or at petrol stations,” Rubin said in a statement.

Read more: Some RFID chips vulnerable to hacking

VeriSign is working with epcGlobal to improve RFID security. They are also looking into which RFID-enabled business processes would bring about the quickest ROI. According to eWeek:

Now, also in collaboration with epcGlobal, VeriSign is developing future enhancements meant to make RFID more tamper-proof at levels that include "the [RFID] tag, the device and data sharing between tags," said Paul Strzelec, director of marketing for VeriSign Directory Services, in an interview with eWEEK.com.

Meanwhile, the vendor has identified a couple of ways to help speed ROI from RFID. One effective approach consists of sophisticated "cross-docking" applications, in which products are traced all the way from manufacturing through distribution centers and retail stores, Strzelec said.

Read more: VeriSign Plans RFID Security Enhancements

The Tobyhanna army depot has begun deploying WhereNet's active RFID asset tracking system to enhance its repair operations for radar systems. The system helps Tobyhanna track the location and movements of parts with a high degree of accuracy in real time. According to Frontline Solutions:

After using active tag technology in a pilot that began last November, the army selected the WhereNet active-tag Real-Time Locating System.

Tobyhanna personnel assign active RFID transmitters called WhereTags to items ranging from components to complete systems. The wireless architecture consists of locating sensors and port devices.

Read more: Army Deploys Active RFID Asset Tracking

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is currently testing the use of RFID tags at ports of entry to improve its border-management system. Visitors to the U.S. are being issued RFID tags that track when and where they cross the border as part of the US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) system. According to Information Week:

Initially, the government will test RFID tags at a simulated port this spring. After that, the government will test the technology at border crossings in Arizona, New York, and Washington state from the end of July through spring 2006. "Through the use of radio-frequency technology, we see the potential to not only improve the security of our country, but also to make the most important infrastructure enhancements to the U.S. land borders in more than 50 years," Asa Hutchinson, Homeland Security undersecretary for border and transportation security, said in a statement announcing the program.

Read more: Homeland Security To Test RFID Tags At U.S. Borders

Marks & Spencer, Tesco, and Metro Group are the three big retailers leading the way in Europe when it comes to RFID testing. Metro is testing RFID in its future store in Germany; Marks & Spencer is tagging 3.5 million food and produce delivery trays; Tesco is expanding its RFID-enabled on-shelf availability of DVDs from two stores to 10. According to Information Week:

To test how consumers respond to RFID, Metro is tagging products from Kraft Foods, Procter & Gamble, and Gillette at its concept "store of the future." It will be at least two years before this project moves into Metro stores, mainly because it requires item-level tagging. Metro is accepting RFID-tagged pallets from 20 suppliers in select distribution centers and outlets of the Metro Cash & Carry, Real, and Kaufhof sales divisions, a project that began in November.

Read more: European Retailers Accelerate RFID Plans

MasterCard's PayPass line of RFID payment cards and tokens will be fitted with RFID chips by Texas Instruments. The chips will be ISO/IEC 14443 compliant and will suit the security needs that MasterCard requires. According to CRM News:

TI's new 13.56 MHz RFID chip is the latest to be introduced in a series of solutions based on the company's ISO/IEC 14443 technology platform.

The platform features products with universally accepted and standardized cryptography, using National Institute of Standards and Technology approved crypto algorithms, including Triple DES and SHA-1.

The ISO/IEC 14443 standard allows for this increased level of security because it supports significantly faster rates of data exchange (up to 848 kbps), enabling more complex security information to be passed between an RFID card and reader without affecting the user's experience.

Read more: Texas Instruments To Deliver RFID for MasterCard

The retail giant Tesco has reported an RFID implementation success rate of 99%. According to ComputerWeekly.com:

Located in Unna, the distribution centre is equipped with Intermec IF5 Intelligent RFID readers and RFID Intermec tags.

Metro has so far "read" 50,000 pallets of goods and is experiencing 99% successful tag read-rates, while complying with the industry’s ETSI-based European radio standard.

Read more: Metro reports 99% RFID implementation success rate

A new article on silicon.com points out that there are two key issues that business adopters of RFID should consider in order to avoid getting into legal issues with the RFID service provider: 1) identify key business benefits of an RFID rollout; 2) identify likely changes to existing systems.

According to silicon.com:

The important point is to translate these commercial objectives into contractual obligations that the RFID service provider should be aiming for. Failure to do this will leave the RFID adopter without adequate contractual tools for encouraging the service provider to perform and without adequate legal remedies if the project fails to deliver the anticipated benefits.

Specifying the objectives may well involve creating a hierarchy of importance of the customer's various goals for the RFID project.

Read more: Before you roll out RFID... read this

Sun Microsystems has announced that they will offer RFID industry solution architectures (ISA) to fit unique RFID requirements in vertical markets. The solution will be particularly useful in government, pharmaceuticals, retail, and manufacturing.

According to Computer Weekly:

The Sun Java System RFID tag and ship solution is a simple entry-level RFID solution that enables customers to address specific RFID compliance requests, such as those from retailers like Wal-Mart.

For customers looking to do more with RFID and integrate RFID data with their back-end enterprise systems, Sun said the Sun RFID reference architecture "provides essential guidelines through a designed, tested, tuned, and documented proof-of-concept deployment architecture".

Read more: Sun boosts RFID offering

Two big European retailers, Tesco and Metro Group, announced on Monday at the National Retail Federation Convention that they had each begun to perform item-level RFID pilots. The two retailers are waiting for the final Gen 2 spec before fully implementing item-level RFID tagging.

According to eWeek:

In another point of departure from Wal-Mart, U.K.-based Tesco and the Germany-based Metro Group are each working with only a few handfuls of product suppliers around RFID.

Tesco will soon expand an item-level RFID test, now in place at one of its stores, to about 10 stores, said Colin Cobain, Tesco's U.K. IT director, at the press conference. The test uses RFID-enabled smart shelves to monitor the whereabouts of DVDs in retail settings.

The Metro Group, on the other hand, is working with a trio of clothing companies on item-level RFID, said the retailer's CIO, Zygmunt Mierdorf, during the press conference.

Read more: Item-Level RFID Tested in Europe, but Cases Await