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RFID PRIVACY AND SECURITY
J. A. Mehtälä*
* Oulu University of Applied Sciences, School of Engineering, Oulu, Finland
[email protected]
Abstract
The purpose of this document is to investigate
how RFID security is done in practice and what user
should know before taken it to use in critical tasks.
This document also provides short view in
encrypting in RFID techniques and how secure those
are in real life. In today’s world we are living among
with hundreds of different RFID devices which
together creates huge network. These networks are
called wireless sensor networks (WSN). Everyone
can see devices looking like gate near shops door
which are reading RFID tags which are attached to
merchandises to protect shops against thieves. These
RFID tags are also used as an electronic product
code (EPC).
and enables tags transmitter to transmit its own EPC
code. Reader can directly communicate with computers
and have huge amount of information from database.
EPC code is defined to be a 64, 96 or higher-bit code
that identifies each individual device or thing. Encoding
include a header field followed by one or more value
fields. The header field tells what is the length and
format in the value fields. These value fields are
consists of unique EPC ID and required filter value.
Without right filter value, code message is useless.
BAR codes biggest advantage is that it is really
widely distributed around the world and it is well
developed and already in daily use. Almost every item
what is produced has BAR code in packet. BAR code
reader is cheap to get and it works well.
Keywords: RFID, tag, wireless sensor, WSN, EPC.
Introduction
Results and Discussion
Radio frequency identification (RFID) is method
where device or tag is identified without physical touch.
Distance between used devices can differ a lot. RFID
tags are based to EPC (Electronic Product code). This
product code is globally used numbering system which
guarantees that every accepted code is unique.
Standardization in this area is growing rapidly. In this
work, privacy in RFID tags and EPC encoding system
are more deeply studied to investigate how well security
issues are defined to guarantee the usage in critical tasks
or in daily use.
The RFID is rapidly growing area in industry. By
using currently available information, it is possible to
make selections which are sustainable for a long time.
There are also cases when it is better to use existing
methods because new technology is not secure enough
or costs are too high compared to advantages. New
technology can’t be only essential thing when selecting
systems for a long period.
Background
Technology consists of two different participants.
Those are RFID and EPC. These technologies are
competing against traditional BAR code, witch is
widely used now.
RFID is commonly used term for devices that uses
radio waves to communicate between transmitter and
receiver. RFID tag consists of three parts, microchip,
antenna and packing. Antenna is connected directly to
microchip and provides needed power to chip and of
course it is used in receiving and transmitting. EPC code
is stored to chip. Packing is needed to protect antenna
and chip against damages and violation. When tag is
located near reader, antenna will provide power to chip
Conclusions
The target in RFID usage is to help every day’s life
and give enough security in system. This can achieve by
using RFID tags and readers which fulfill applicable
standards. Also these standards define how tags can be
used safely way to prevent unnecessary alarms and
failures.