A Wired Magazine article examines how hacking radio frequency ID (RFID) chips can allow clever criminals to rob you of information, or even steal your car.
The article looks at five stories of RFID hacking, including a demonstration of how to steal someone's smartcard information in order to gain access to a building, and a method of tricking an automated gas pump so that fuel can be stolen from it.
RFID chips are now near-universal, used as access keys, car starting devices, and inventory tracking tools. U.S. passports and credit cards will soon contain RFIDs, and the medical industry is looking at the possibility of using implantable chips to keep track of patients.
RFID tags may soon replace barcodes as a means for labeling all sorts of things, like the clothes you wear and the food you eat. Like most new tech developments this is a mixed blessing.
The positive side is that it will help stores more easily manage their inventory, lower their costs and pass these savings on to you. It will also be easier for them to keep their items in stock for you.
The downside is that they pose potentially onerous troubling risks to your health, privacy and security.
Wired is without a doubt one of my favorite tech magazines, and their story on this topic demonstrates some simple reasons, through various electronic work-arounds, why you shouldn't rely on RFID tags to keep you safe.
RFID signals can be encrypted, but most commercial RFID tags don't bother to include this kind of security, because it's too expensive. The difference in price is about 25 cents for an insecure chip and $5 for a secure one; it isn't cost-effective for most businesses to obtain secure chips.
The technology has other problems as well; if RFID is used for purposes that will limit your freedoms, like the expensive "chipping" of farm animals that will cause many small farmers to go out of business and not sell you high-quality food, then they are clearly not in your best interests.
Some experts also remain wary about whether manufacturers are really collecting stock data or collecting personal information.
There are many advantages to RFID technology. But it's technology that needs to be handled sensibly, or it could end up creating far more problems than it solves.