Tuesday, February 24, 2004

RFID blockers?

Radio Frequency ID (RFID) is being hailed as the replacement for barcodes. Essentially, RFID tags that are embedded in products or product packaging pass information to a RFID reader when in proximity to the reader. One of the big concerns regarding RFID has been security, but RSA, according to an article at News.com has developed RSA security technology. When I read the title of the article, I thought that RSA had done something absolutely extraordinary with RFID technology, but as I read, I realized that they had, for all intents and purposes, simply created a RFID disrupter. The example given in the article of the RSA product is that a RFID-enabled bottle of pills is placed in a bag that has the RSA disrupter embedded in it. The disrupter in the bad will prevent RFID readers from reading RFID data from the pill bottle until the bottle is removed from the bag. While admirable that RSA has come up with this security device, it sort of reminds me of the lead bags that they used to sell to protect your film when sending it through x-ray machines at the airport.

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