A new worry for the RFID, it is possible to create virus for them.


A group of European computer researchers have demonstrated that it is possible to insert a software virus into radio frequency identification tags, part of a microchip-based tracking technology in growing use in commercial and security applications.
Skip to next paragraph
Don Bernstein/The Raytheon Company

Radio frequency identity tags are growing in popularity because they are easily scanned.

In a paper to be presented today at an academic computing conference in Pisa, Italy, the researchers plan to demonstrate how it is possible to infect a tiny portion of memory in the chip, which can hold as little as 128 characters of information.


link: RFID Vulnerable to Viruses (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/15/technology/15tag.html?ei=5090&en=24f421ff24864376&ex=1300078800&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1142431287-xaZ8szgYhVOe/+2RmOButw)

Eridalafar

Oh nothing to worry about... just hope they don't reboot you while you're driving your car or something :)

Good thing the gov'ment is using them in the new passports now!
<a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11748876/">Link</a>

But it's ok, because you can buy something like this -
http://www.difrwear.com/products.shtml

*edit - fixed wallet link

Or that every US tourists come from the Texas.

Or for a bar using them in their clients, that everyone drink are charged to the same client (but he is dead from 3 weeks...).

The possible effects will depend of the place that will be given to the RFID tags and the security used.

Eridalafar

Well, RFIDs aren't exactly getting infected. They are more couriers. The nieve part in all this is: Until now, most computer security experts have discounted the possibility of using such tags, known as RFID chips, to spread a computer virus because of the tiny amount of memory on the chips.
Doesn't take much to write a delete function. ^_^

But it's ok, because you can buy something like this -
http://www.difrwear.com/products.shtml
That's something I think they should put into the wallets of the passports, too. This'll force people to open the passport for scanning and protect them from random scanning.

How dare you. How dare you denigrate the one technology that will make the world safe for children and their pets.

The above is an example of sarcasm and does not reflect the views of The Druid's Grove staff or affiliates or even the poster of the message.

Given the limited ways that an RFID chip can interact with a reader, it should be fairly simple to write a provably secure reader (one that handles all possible inputs).

The first RFID chips will just be numbered beacons and probably secure. The next generation of RFID will be more sophisticated and probably not secure.