Securing RFID Applications: Issues, Methods, and Controls

adio frequency identification (RFID) is an automatic identification (autoID) technology developed by the Auto-ID Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags and readers (Auto-ID Center, 2002; Doyle, 2004; EPC, 2004b; Finkenzeller, 2000; Shepard, 2005). With RFID technology, physical assets will have embedded intelligence that allows them to communicate with each other and with the tracking points (Auto-ID Center, 2002; IBM, 2003; VeriSign, 2004). An RFID tag is a small object that can be attached to or incorporated into a physical asset, such as a book, animal, or person. When an RFID tag passes through the electromagnetic zone, it detects the reader’s activation signal. The reader decodes the data encoded in the tag’s integrated circuit (silicon chip) and the data is passed to the host computer for further processing. As shown in Table 1, there are six classes of RFID tags designed for different applications, including active tags, which require a battery to operate, and passive tags, which have no battery (Auto-ID Center, 2002). RFID tag technology generally dictates the operating parameters of an RFID system. As set forth in ABI, Inc. (2002), other than tag power source, operating frequencies is another main factor influencing the type of RFID applications, where the applications can be generally categorized as: (1) low frequency (LF), for access control or point-of-sales (POS) applications, (2) high frequency (HF), for handling baggage or library items in asset management application, (3) ultra high frequency (UHF) for SCM application, and (4) microwave frequency for electronic toll collection application.