http://blog.sciam.com/index.php?title=kill_rfid_by_cell_phone&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

San Francisco IndyMedia

02/15/06

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags -- tiny wireless circuits that derive their power from radio waves and cost just pennies to make -- have quickly found their way into identification badges, shipping containers, even ordinary store products. Because, unlike barcodes, the tags can be read surreptitiously, a number of groups have raised privacy concerns. To address these concerns, leading RFID makers have created so-called 'Gen 2' chips that will divulge their data only after a reader transmits the correct password. The new chips can also be triggered by a different password to silently self-destruct, for example as a customer leaves a store. Encryption protects the password transmission. But renowned cryptographer Adi Shamir of Weizmann University claims to have found a way to bypass the encryption scheme and obtain the self-destruct password using technology no more sophisticated than that in a common cell phone...

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/1724713.php


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp