Standards, Security & Privacy Issues about Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

Evsen Korkmaz, Alp Ustundag
2007 2007 1st Annual RFID Eurasia  
There is no doubt that managing the flow of goods depends on monitoring the real flow in the physical world meanwhile in the digital world. Today automatic identification (auto-ID) technologies are used to close the gap between these two different environments by online updating of databases as the materials flow in the chain. From this point of view, we can say that auto-ID technologies are core components of automated inventory control systems on all echelons of supply chain. As being a novel
more » ... sub-component of auto-ID, RFID innovates important features. Although developments in RFID technology begun nearly 50 years ago, recent advances provided new opportunities improving commerce and everyday life. New applications and obligations (like the obligations that are put forward by Wal-Mart to its suppliers) bring forth different aspects. Due to the fact that RFID is a recently developed technology, there exist some deficiencies, like the lack of standardization and the lack of legislation regulations, that cause questions about privacy and security in society. In this study, we reviewed the standardization studies of related organizations like EPCglobal and ISO, compare these and find the gaps. We also classify the risks that threaten the privacy of individuals and organizations. Finally, regarding the standardization studies and existing risks towards the privacy of individuals and organizations, security proposals and policy suggestions are introduced. Introduction RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology is the latest Auto-ID technology that is anticipated to supersede the barcode technology. As its name implies, RFID uses radio signals to communicate. There are three main components of RFID systems. These are tag, reader and back-end database (Weis, 2003) . The communication between these components is provided by radio waves like the other wireless technologies as Bluetooth. RFID represents several distinctions over barcodes in terms of (1) non optical proximity communication, (2) information density, (3) two way communication ability and (4) multiple simultaneous reading (read more than one item at once) (Roberts, 2006) . These features provide RFID the advantage of expanding all echelons of the supply chain. While the manufacturing of RFID tag technology is evolving, it is planned to develop tiny tags that are invisible to the human eye. The microscopic beads (RFID tags) can be embedded in inks to track banknotes and other important documents. The microscopic tags can also be added to the materials like automobile paint, explosives, or other products that law enforcement officers or retailers have a strong interest in tracking. According to researchers, this technology could be ready for commercial use in three to six years (http://epic.org/privacy/rfid). The other constraint that lays in the future proliferation of RFID tags is cost of tags. A barcode label can be produced at a cost of less than 1 cent per label. So the main drawback of RFID against the barcode is cost of tags. According to the RFID tag classes, the cost also differentiates. Whereas
doi:10.1109/rfideurasia.2007.4368148 fatcat:zsskgvt77ncjfnmr5c4lt4qscu