RFID Viruses and Worms

Introduction

Radio Frequency Identification is a wireless technology which identifies objects or people with help of the radio waves. RFID tag is useful for storing and retrieving the data. So, if you attach RFID tag to some product then that product will be identified by radio waves.
RFID tags are useful in applications like payment system, airline baggage management, smart homes and offices, consumer goods like clothing, food items, etc.

How viruses come in RFID tags?

If RFID software is intentionally corrupted by someone like hackers then RFID tags are infected by viruses. Whenever such tags are read by readers, these viruses start infecting the backend database which is used by the RFID software. The virus now spreads rapidly to other RFID tags.

Some real world scenarios -

How RFID tags are affected by viruses by hackers? For understanding this, let’s see some real life examples.
1. One traveler whose intension is not good attaches the virus affected RFID tag to some other traveler before he checks in. When his suitcase is scanned by the baggage handling system’s RFID reader at any scanning point, the infected tag replies with RFID virus. Now, this infects the airport’s baggage database. This affected RFID tag also may affect other passenger’s RFID tags. If any of these infected bags transit a hub and is rescanned then it may affect other airport’s systems. So, in one day it could affect to tens of airports.

2. A fraud man goes to supermarket where all the products have RFID tags instead of bar codes. RFID scanners are faster then the bar codes so many supermarkets are using RFID tags. That man scans and buys a nice jar on which RFID tag attached from that store. After coming back to home, first he removes RFID tag from the jar and he writes on blank RFID which he has with the help of his home computer and commercially available equipment. Then he attaches that infected RFID to the jar and again goes to that supermarket with that jar. And there he gets the jar scanned again leading to the whole system getting eventually infected.

How to prevent viruses?

Now, you can save your privacy in RFID system by RFID Guardian. This will help you to protect your privacy by hackers. You will get all the information about RFID guardian on the website.

RFID is not a fool proof system. And a single infected tag has a potential to bring down the entire system. However, with anti-virus solutions now available, you can fight off any virus and continue business as usual.

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