New Approaches for Better Security and Privacy in RFID Communications

RFID is likely to emerge as a very important tool in electronically documenting the physical world to generate powerful information. In order to label millions of objects with RFID tags economically, the cost of a single tag has to be very competitive. However an inexpensive tag costing just a few cents would not have the necessary infrastructure to secure the data it stores and transmits. RFID has been drawing attention from privacy advocates and skeptics for the loopholes it can create in the information security infrastructure and consumer privacy. This article presents an overview of the security and privacy concern vis-a`-vis RFID. It surveys the research trying to ensure credible security and privacy in future low-cost RFID systems. The main purpose of this article is to hypothesize new ways of addressing concerns of security and privacy in low-cost RFID systems. Efforts are underway in the RFID Lab at Northeastern University to develop these ideas further and test their practical viability.