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RSA Creating RFID Blocker Tag
burgburgburg writes "RSA is introducing a new RFID cloaking system to guard secret data. The RSA Blocker Tag technology uses a jamming system designed to confuse RFID readers and prevent those devices from tracking data on individuals or goods outside certain boundaries. At its security conference, RSA demonstrated the blocking technology in a pharmacy setting. The pharmacist provides your prescription in a special bag with the Blocker tags. When the drugs are in the bag, RFID readers are blocked. Take them out, they're readable. The tags work by emitting radio frequencies that fool RFID readers into thinking they're receiving unwanted data, causing them to shun data from that source. RSA promises that this new technology will not interfere with the normal operation of RFID systems or allow hackers to use security technology to bypass theft-control systems or launch denial-of-service attacks." Maybe it's just me, but this seems to not address any of the important RFID issues at all.
You don't need a special chip to stop RFID tags from functioning. Look at the EZPass/FastPass/etc. systems in use on highway systems across the country. They come with a metallized plastic bag, similar to the antistatic ones that your hard drive came in, that blocks the signal from the EZPass so that you won't register when you don't want it to. All you need is your standard Anti-static bag. Drop your RFID tags in there and watch the readers try to find them. Signals won't penetrate: no chip necessary.
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
That reminds me of a news special I saw on TV about professional shoplifters. Apparently they had devised a way to smuggle clothing and other goods with RFID tags past those little scanner gates. You wanna know how they did it?
Tin foil lined bags!
According to the show, some of these shoplifting rings take millions of dollars worth of merchanise a year. So this method must be pretty effective. I love when people go through a ton of work and invest billions of dollars while ignoring something simple/stupid like tin foil.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
We have a stupid FastTrak system here in California for the carpool lanes where you can pay even if you are by yourself in the car. They give you a transmitter box and it debits your account when you get in the lane. Long story short, they give you a bag made out of silver to put your transmitter in if you actually do have a passenger with you, so your account won't get debited.
Seems like one of these silver bags would work perfect to put RFID enabled items in.
"We need a fourth law of Robotics: Stop Fingering My Wife"
Wired did an article on this: Is RFID Technology Easy to Foil?
I believe those bags are called Booster Bags and the are a felony to possess, in PA at least. My sister works in a retail outlet and they have caught ppl using them. Throw clothing in bag walk out store no annoying alarms.
"All I can tell the "lesser of two evils" folks is that if they keep voting for evil, they'll keep getting evil."-Lp.org
Odd. When I want to block an RFID tag, I put it an ESD bag. (Electrostatic bag, the kind that come with many computer components). When I ordered an RFID based automated toll-booth system, it came with an ESD bag, and in their FAQ they explicitly state that if you don't want your tag read and your account charged, just put the device in the bag, easy as that. Presumeably, an ESD bag (which has enough metal in it to accomodate a random static discharge) would create a Faraday cage around the tag, and keep the radio signals from getting in or out of the bag. Now all I have to do is make a shopping bag out of ESD bags.... or just line a backpack, and _bam_. Shoplifter's dream. just remember to close the bag first....
"Is this not a rare fellow, my lord? He's as good at any thing, and yet a fool." -from "As You Like It", Act 5,
That might not be an option with all products. If it is sewn into the hem of a dress, or molded into the sole of a sneaker, removal might be a bit messy.
I submitted an article on this to /. a few weeks ago but it was rejected. Typical of /. to print every anti-RFID piece of FUD they get but to ignore anything that might indicate that some companines get it.
Lasers Controlled Games!
This was actually on 60 minutes just last Sunday (Feb 22). There are organized groups which steal thousands of dollars of merchandise off racks in plain bags which are lined with tinfoil to block the theft tags.
Myth, by the way. NASA used/uses mostly pencils and felt-tips, both of which work just fine in orbit. The 'space pen' was mainly marketing for whichever company it was that designed the silly thing.
This is from working at Kennedy.
What is a Faraday Cage?
A Faraday Cage is the phenomenon that occurs when you surround an object with a conductor (read: metal), basically stopping all charge from entering/exiting conductor.
Here is a simple decution of why:
Gauss's Law states when a conductor is charged the charge resides on the surface of the object--with a solid metal sphere, all the charge would be sitting on the outside surface.
Now imagine a hallow sphere: The charge can only be on the surface of an object, therefore this allows no charge 'inside' the sphere.
Examples in everyday life:
->Lightning strikes your car
-> Lightning strikes a plane. (Studies say by average, every plane in the US is hit by lightning once a year)
-> Your Cell phone gets poor reception in basements and lower floors of buildings because of the rebar in the concrete.
I found a cool app. of Faraday's Cage where you control the charge--really helpful if you still don't get it.
"The truth suffers from too much analysis"
Yeah, I was trying to make a joke. Just the same, I'll bite -- cause I happen to have some experience with this. Radar detectors are only illegal in VA and Washington DC (in the US, anyway). In these places they use VG2 (and other) detector detectors. However, it's illegal to scramble radar or (AFAIK) detector signals -- actually highly illegal. Now, the FCC doesn't make the radar detectors illegal -- in fact, they're only radios. They just listen into a given radio frequency and tell you if there's activity in that spectrum. Consequently, they broadcast a tiny amount of RF (the same as radar). This is why the guy in the lane next to you with a cheapo radar detector might set yours off -- his probably has crappy shielding. All the VG2 (and similar devices) do is listen for these very small signals. There is no jamming taking place at all. The police can't even jam radar detectors -- they can only change the spectrum (like using Lidar/Laser) or use technology like POP to fool the radar detectors. (BTW, there's all kinds of info here -- it's a review, but they talk about all the newest technology on all side of this). The new technology the the police use will eventually be countered by the radar detector manufacturers...it's nothing special, just a dumb cat-and-mouse game for an additional "driving tax".
Radio frequencies are governed by the FCC, and they tend to enforce the law as far as jamming signals goes. However, if their law doesn't apply to this, I'd bet this bag would count as some sort of circumvention device (what if the RFID tags were protecting IP like a book, CD, or software?). If it's a circumvention device, someone will make the stretch that it violates the DMCA. A circumvention device that circumvents the protections afforded by a circumvention device -- well, someone could probably invoke the DMCA against that too. I guess I'm not as funny as I thought...just the same, however, I don't think that your radar example applies to this.
-Turkey
Now that you've posted you can't mod me up though. :)
Lasers Controlled Games!
As mentioned above, this is a myth.. Snopes link to the real story
-Redundancy Man strikes again!
After working for several months with the new EPC compliant tags (what WalMart has mandated) I can, with a great level of assurance, say that one does not need a chip to prevent reading of the chips, that is way overkill, and probably not really reliable.
There are a couple ways to easily defeat the chips:
1) put the product inside of a foil lined bag. Doesn't even have to be heavy foil, any slightly metalic foil will block the RF signal to the point that the tag cannot be read.
2) Hold the product close to your body. The water in your body absorbs the RF signal, silencing the backscatter RF signal.
3) Put two standard RFID chips close together and the antennas will 'shadow' each other, blocking the signal from both.
From my experience it is harder to read the tags than it is to not read the tags. (the fact that you can read a tag is almost a miracle in itself) To build an entire chip to defeat an RFID chip is just stupid.
RSA is just looking for something else to patent, like they did the RSA algorithm.
Nothing here...move along
Yesterday the Utah House of Representatives passed a bill that would require stores to disable any RFID tag at the point of sale to a consumer (unless the consumer specifically requests that they don't). There was a lot of debate on the issue, but it seems like the legislator who presented the bill has done a lot of research and made a very compelling presentation. I'm not sure how the bill will fare in the Senate here, but the House passed it by a fairly large margin. There were several lobbyists in town from back east trying to kill this bill, but they obviously failed.
FCC regulations prohibit deliberately interfering with radio communication. 47 CFR 15.5(b)
You're right, as far as actively transmitting goes. But something passive (like stuffing an RFID tag into an ESD bag or maybe even tinfoil) would not contravene this regulation.
Here's the text...
Title 47, CFR Section 15.5 General conditions of operation.
(b) Operation of an intentional, unintentional, or incidental radiator is subject to the conditions that no harmful interference is caused and that interference must be accepted that may be caused by the operation of an authorized radio station, by another intentional or unintentional radiator, by industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) equipment, or by an incidental radiator.