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MIT Reveals "Hack-Proof" RFID Chip (thestack.com)

Posted by timothy on from the strong-claim dept.

JustAnotherOldGuy writes: A group of researchers at MIT and Texas Instruments claim that they have developed a new radio frequency identification chip that may be impossible to hack. Traditional RFID chips are vulnerable to side-channel attacks, whereby a hacker can extract a cryptographic key from the chip. The new RFID chip runs a random-number generator that creates a new secret key after each transaction. The key can then be verified with a server to ensure that it is correct. The group at MIT also incorporated protection against a power-glitch attack, an attack that would normally leave a chip vulnerable to an interruption of the power source that would in turn halt the creation of a new secret key. Texas Instruments CTO Ahmad Bahai stated, "We believe this research is an important step toward the goal of a robust, lo-cost, low-power authentication protocol for the industrial internet." The question is, how long will it be before this "hack proof" chip is hacked?

4 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. Hack proof? by Viol8 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How many times have we heard this over the years. To be truly hack proof it'll have to be a quantum system. Is it? Doesn't look like it.

    1. Re:Hack proof? by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hackproof, unsinkable, indestructible ... at a certain point the superlatives just become meaningless.

      The be truly hack proof it needs no inputs and no outputs. It would be useless, but it would be hackproof.

      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:Hack proof? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      TFA says it has its own power supply. Presumably a battery. Kinda breaks the most important feature of RFID.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  2. unhackable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Un-hackable? and a thousand hackers said challenge accepted.