RFID has security loopholes and security issues cannot be underestimated

Recently, the topic of RFID security loopholes has reappeared and become a hot spot in various media reports. But it is different from the email viruses or network worms that need to be dealt with by the IT department of the enterprise in time. This security risk is not an imminent security issue. At least it has not reached the point of burning eyebrows.

Some recent events have made people have to pay attention to the fact that RFID has loopholes. In early March, a security expert in the industry cracked a new biotechnology passport issued in the UK that uses RFID to store personal information. At the 2007 RSA Security Conference in February, a company called IOActive demonstrated an RFID cloner, a device that can steal passwords by copying credit cards. IOActive originally planned to make a similar presentation at the Black Hat Security Conference, but it was revoked by strong opposition from a leading manufacturer in the RFID credit card industry. The display has caused widespread media attention on the confidentiality of credit cards, which has exceeded the original intention of IOActive to display. Coupled with a series of related reports in the media: from the US Department of Homeland Security ’s plan to issue passports that use RFID chips to store personal information last year, to the American Federation of Human Rights and Freedoms, which expressed strong opposition because RFID may leak personal information. Media reports also said that malicious criminals can develop RFID viruses. Suddenly, the security of this technology seems to be vulnerable, as if using web email to send confidential information is as undesirable.

However, it is different from those network hidden dangers, which will affect all netizens who use the network, and only when important information is stored on the RFID chip, its security holes are truly dangerous. At present, the application of RFID by many enterprises is still in the early stages, so the risk of its security breach is not great.

Nutritional product manufacturer Schiff Nutrition started using RFID equipment to label the containers three months ago. The information on the labels is basic information about the products in the containers, including their name, place of origin and type. Company business analysis manager Rod. Farimon said they did not consider security issues because the data was not of much value. He said: "We use this technology like using barcodes, just like people can fake barcodes, people can also fake RFID, but the question is, what's the point of doing so?" All important information about the company's products is kept On a password-protected network server, the information on the RFID tag can only be used to identify the product in the box.

Jeff, Research Vice President, Gartner. Woods said: "It is unreasonable for people to worry about the sky. Now RFID is mostly used in some common information storage." But that is not to say that security issues can be ignored. Enterprises engaged in RFID projects must be equipped with special security personnel and standard security mechanisms for the implementation of the project.