" Hospital Infant Switches Reduced with System to Bond Newborns to Mom
Vancouver, BC (PRWEB) July 12, 2009 -- Guard RFID Solutions Inc. announced today that its leading-edge TotGuard™ Infant Protection system now bonds mothers to their infants using Active RFID tags, as a major feature addition to its infant security solution. Vice President of Sales, Beth Bandi explains, "We have all heard the rare, heartbreaking stories of mothers going home with the wrong baby, but the incidence of mother-baby mix-ups in hospitals is more common and has more costly consequences than one might expect."
TotGuard Active RFID Bonds Mom & Tot
We have all heard the rare, heartbreaking stories of mothers going home with the wrong baby, but the incidence of mother-baby mix-ups in hospitals is more common and has more costly consequences than one might expect.
Lack of validated identity information due to lapses in protocol, mistakes and errors costs hospitals thousands of dollars in time, tests and lost productivity for each occurrence not including the negative effect on reputation
Bandi went on to say that preventing identification errors is a huge issue for hospitals and the populace they serve, especially for infants, the most vulnerable population. "Lack of validated identity information due to lapses in protocol, mistakes and errors costs hospitals thousands of dollars in time, tests and lost productivity for each occurrence not including the negative effect on reputation," says Bandi. She continued by saying that at GuardRFID, we considered the key risks and are proud to have a complete infant security system in TotGuard™ that delivers results.
A 2005 study reported that there are approximately 23,000 erroneous infant-mother transfers per year in the United States alone, and that the vast majority are discovered before discharge, "usually through pure luck". Bandi gave an example of widely reported case where a Mom had to be tested for hepatitis after breastfeeding the wrong baby.
The Mother-Baby Bonding feature within GuardRFID's TotGuard™ solution, and the associated active RFID tags, begin production shipments in October, 2009. Bandi stated that Guard RFID is currently accepting requests for upgrades to existing systems, and is offering the feature as an option system for all new system requirements.
The TotGuard Infant Security system uses the only Disposable Infant Tags on the market, eliminating the need to clean, disinfect and sterilize tags after use, and removing the risk of cross-infection between infants. These small, infant tags utilize Guard RFID's unique dual-tamper detecting mechanism, which is designed to significantly reduce nuisance alarms.
About Guard RFID Solutions
Guard RFID develops Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies and products for Healthcare and Enterprise applications. Guard RFID's products provide accurate RF asset tracking and people tracking for healthcare and industrial applications, and are used for enhanced automation, workflow, monitoring and security solutions. Guard RFID's ability to support multiple applications on its Argus [active RFID platform positions the company to be able to offer combined people and asset solutions all on the same infrastructure. Founded in early 2007, Guard RFID introduced the first low-cost disposable Active RFID tags to the market, eliminating the need to recycle tags, and allowing for mass deployment for a reasonable investment. Guard RFID Solutions is federally incorporated in Canada, with its head office in the Province of British Columbia, and its Sales office in Atlanta, GA.
Additional information regarding Guard RFID products and services can be found on its website www.guardrfid.com"
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/07/prweb2632224.htm
duminică, 19 iulie 2009
Government officials say RFID makes life easier, privacy advocates worried
You think !?
"by Associated Press
Sunday July 12, 2009, 12:30 AM
AP PhotoThis is one of Vermont's enhanced driver's licenses.
Government officials say embedding passports, driver's licenses and the like with radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a 21st century application of technology that will make life easier and Americans safer.
But privacy advocates fear that RFID paired with other technologies could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
These chips have the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say. Some have already begun calling the practice "Little Brother" in a nod to the Big Brother of George Orwell's "1984."
Neville Pattinson, an executive for Gemalto Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, says placing RFIDs in driver's licenses and passports makes them vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists." More must be done, he says, to protect information linked to the chips.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been promoting the use of RFID, despite warnings from its own advisory committee. To date, about 192,000 enhanced driver's licenses using the chips have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
In the video below, a hacker named Chris Paget shows how RFID-embedded identification cards have made it possible for him to collect stranger's information with equipment he bought on eBay for less than $200.
"
"by Associated Press
Sunday July 12, 2009, 12:30 AM
AP PhotoThis is one of Vermont's enhanced driver's licenses.
Government officials say embedding passports, driver's licenses and the like with radio frequency identification, or RFID, is a 21st century application of technology that will make life easier and Americans safer.
But privacy advocates fear that RFID paired with other technologies could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
These chips have the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say. Some have already begun calling the practice "Little Brother" in a nod to the Big Brother of George Orwell's "1984."
Neville Pattinson, an executive for Gemalto Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, says placing RFIDs in driver's licenses and passports makes them vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists." More must be done, he says, to protect information linked to the chips.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has been promoting the use of RFID, despite warnings from its own advisory committee. To date, about 192,000 enhanced driver's licenses using the chips have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
In the video below, a hacker named Chris Paget shows how RFID-embedded identification cards have made it possible for him to collect stranger's information with equipment he bought on eBay for less than $200.
"
Chips in official IDs raise privacy fears
"By TODD LEWAN
Associated Press
Posted: 07/11/2009 09:37:12 AM PDT
Updated: 07/11/2009 09:37:17 AM PDT
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents — passports, drivers licenses, and the like — with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
He filmed his drive-by heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to
Advertisement
erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it — even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
The key to getting such a system to work, these opponents say, is making sure everyone carries an RFID tag linked to a biometric data file.
On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card — credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but rather "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."
Likewise, U.S. border agents are "pinging" databases only to confirm that licenses aren't counterfeited. "They're not pulling up your speeding tickets," she says, or looking at personal information beyond what is on a passport.
The change is largely about speed and convenience, she says. An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" — even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that government RFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.
Such assurances don't persuade those who liken RFID-embedded documents to barcodes with antennas and contend they create risks to privacy that far outweigh the technology's heralded benefits. They warn it will actually enable identity thieves, stalkers and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.
Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
Still, Pattinson has sharply criticized the RFIDs in U.S. driver's licenses and passport cards. In a 2007 article for the Privacy Advisor, a newsletter for privacy professionals, he called them vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."
RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."
Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."
Echoing these concerns were the AeA — the lobbying association for technology firms — the Smart Card Alliance, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Business Travel Coalition, and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy warned that radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow "widespread surveillance of individuals" without their knowledge or consent.
In its 2006 draft report, the committee concluded that RFID "increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security," and recommended that "RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings."
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver's licenses are optional and not yet widely deployed in the United States. To date, roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them "you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially," says Paget, a self-described "ethical hacker" who works as an Internet security consultant.
Could RFID numbers eventually become de facto identifiers of Americans, like the Social Security number?
Such a day is not far off, warns Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate and co-author of "Spychips," a book that is sharply critical of the use of RFID in consumer items and official ID documents.
"There's a reason you don't wear your Social Security number across your T-shirt," Albrecht says, "and beaming out your new, national RFID number in a 30-foot radius would be far worse."
There are no federal laws against the surreptitious skimming of Americans' RFID numbers, so it won't be long before people seek to profit from this, says Bruce Schneier, an author and chief security officer at BT, the British telecommunications operator.
Data brokers that compile computer dossiers on millions of individuals from public records, credit applications and other sources "will certainly maintain databases of RFID numbers and associated people," he says. "They'd do a disservice to their stockholders if they didn't."
But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID, particularly in this day and age when there are a lot of other ways to access personal information on people."
Tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone, or a satellite tag embedded in a car, she says. "An RFID that contains no private information, just a randomly assigned number, is probably one of the least things to be concerned about, frankly."
Still, even some ardent RFID supporters recognize that these next-generation RFID cards raise prickly questions.
Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal, an industry newsletter, recently acknowledged that as the use of RFID in official documents grows, the potential for abuse increases.
"A government could do this, for instance, to track opponents," he wrote in an opinion piece discussing Paget's cloning experiment. "To date, this type of abuse has not occurred, but it could if governments fail to take privacy issues seriously."
———
Imagine this: Sensors triggered by radio waves instructing cameras to zero in on people carrying RFID, unblinkingly tracking their movements.
Unbelievable? Intrusive? Outrageous?
Actually, it happens every day and makes people smile — at the Alton Towers amusement park in Britain, which videotapes visitors who agree to wear RFID bracelets as they move about the facility, then sells the footage as a keepsake.
This application shows how the technology can be used effortlessly — and benignly. But critics, noting it can also be abused, say federal authorities in the United States didn't do enough from the start to address that risk.
The first U.S. identity document to be embedded with RFID was the "e-passport."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — and the finding that some of the terrorists entered the United States using phony passports — the State Department proposed mandating that Americans and foreign visitors carry "enhanced" passport booklets, with microchips embedded in the covers.
The chips, it announced, would store the holder's information from the data page, a biometric version of the bearer's photo, and receive special coding to prevent data from being altered.
In February 2005, when the State Department asked for public comment, it got an outcry: Of the 2,335 comments received, 98.5 percent were negative, with 86 percent expressing security or privacy concerns, the department reported in an October 2005 notice in the Federal Register.
"Identity theft was of grave concern," it stated, adding that "others expressed fears that the U.S. Government or other governments would use the chip to track and censor, intimidate or otherwise control or harm them."
It also noted that many Americans expressed worries "that the information could be read at distances in excess of 10 feet."
Those concerned citizens, it turns out, had cause.
According to department records obtained by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the AP, discussion about security concerns with the e-passport occurred as early as January 2003 but tests weren't ordered until the department began receiving public criticism two years later.
When the AP asked when testing was initiated, the State Department said only that "a battery of durability and electromagnetic tests were performed" by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with tests "to measure the ability of data on electronic passports to be surreptitiously skimmed or for communications with the chip reader to be eavesdropped," testing which "led to additional privacy controls being placed on U.S. electronic passports ... "
Indeed, in 2005, the department incorporated metallic fibers into the e-passport's front cover, since metal can reduce the range at which RFID can be read. Personal information in the chips was encrypted and a cryptographic "key" added, which required inspectors to optically scan the e-passport first for the chip to communicate wirelessly.
The department also announced it would test e-passports with select employees, before giving them to the public. "We wouldn't be issuing the passports to ourselves if we didn't think they're secure," said Frank Moss, deputy assistant Secretary of State for passport services, in a CNN interview.
But what of Americans' concerns about the e-passport's read range?
In its October 2005 Federal Register notice, the State Department reassured Americans that the e-passport's chip — the ISO 14443 tag — would emit radio waves only within a 4-inch radius, making it tougher to hack.
Technologists in Israel and England, however, soon found otherwise. In May 2006, at the University of Tel Aviv, researchers cobbled together $110 worth of parts from hobbyists kits and directly skimmed an encrypted tag from several feet away. At the University of Cambridge, a student showed that a transmission between an e-passport and a legitimate reader could be intercepted from 160 feet.
The State Department, according to its own records obtained under FOIA, was aware of the problem months before its Federal Register notice and more than a year before the e-passport was rolled out in August 2006.
"Do not claim that these chips can only be read at a distance of 10 cm (4 inches)," Moss wrote in an April 22, 2005, e-mail to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "That really has been proven to be wrong."
The chips could be skimmed from a yard away, he added — all a hacker would need to read e-passport numbers, say, in an elevator or on a subway.
Other red flags went up. In February 2006, an encrypted Dutch e-passport was hacked on national television, with researchers gaining access to the document's digital photograph, fingerprint and personal data. Then British e-passports were hacked using a $500 reader and software written in less than 48 hours.
The State Department countered by saying European e-passports weren't as safe as their American counterparts because they lacked the cryptographic key and the anti-skimming cover.
But recent studies have shown that more powerful readers can penetrate even the metal sheathing in the U.S. e-passport's cover.
John Brennan, a senior policy adviser at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, concedes it may be possible for a reader to overpower the e-passport's protective shield from a distance.
However, he adds, "you could not do this in any large-scale, concerted fashion without putting a bunch of infrastructure in place to make it happen. The practical vulnerabilities may be far less than some of the theoretical scenarios that people have put out there."
That thinking is flawed, says Lee Tien, a senior attorney and surveillance expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposes RFID in identity documents.
It won't take a massive government project to build reader networks around the country, he says: They will grow organically, for commercial purposes, from convention centers to shopping malls, sports stadiums to college campuses. Federal agencies and law enforcement wouldn't have to control those networks; they already buy information about individuals from commercial data brokers.
"And remember," Tien adds, "technology always gets better ... "
———
With questions swirling around the e-passport's security, why then did the government roll out more RFID-tagged documents — the PASS card and enhanced driver's license, which provide less protection against hackers?
The RFIDs in enhanced driver's licenses and PASS cards are nearly as slim as paper. Each contains a silicon computer chip attached to a wire antenna, which transmits a unique identifier via radio waves when "awakened" by an electromagnetic reader.
The technology they use is designed to track products through the supply chain. These chips, known as EPCglobal Gen 2, have no encryption, and minimal data protection features. They are intended to release their data to any inquiring Gen 2 reader within a 30-foot radius.
This might be appropriate when a supplier is tracking a shipment of toilet paper or dog food; but when personal information is at stake, privacy advocates ask: Is long-range readability truly desirable?
The departments of State and Homeland Security say remotely readable ID cards transmit only RFID numbers that correspond to records stored in government databases, which they say are secure. Even if a hacker were to copy an RFID number onto a blank tag and place it into a counterfeit ID, they say, the forger's face still wouldn't match the true cardholder's photo in the database, rendering it useless.
Still, computer experts such as Schneier say government databases can be hacked. Others worry about a day when hackers might deploy readers at "chokepoints," such as checkout lines, skim RFID numbers from people's driver's licenses, then pair those numbers to personal data skimmed from chipped credit cards (though credit cards are harder to skim). They imagine stalkers using skimmed RFID numbers to track their targets' comings and goings. They fear government agents will compile chip numbers at peace rallies, mosques or gun shows, simply by strolling through a crowd with a reader.
Others worry more about the linking of chips with other identification methods, including biometric technologies, such as facial recognition.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global standards for passports, now calls for facial recognition in all scannable e-passports.
Should biometric technologies be coupled with RFID, "governments will have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time," says Mark Lerner, spokesman for the Constitutional Alliance, a network of nonprofit groups, lawmakers and citizens opposed to remotely readable identity and travel documents.
Implausible?
For now, perhaps. Radio tags in EDLs and passport cards can't be scanned miles away.
But scientists are working on technologies that might enable a satellite or a cell tower to scan a chip's contents. Critics also note advances in the sharpness of closed-circuit cameras, and point out they're increasingly ubiquitous. And more fingerprints, iris scans and digitized facial images are being stored in government databases. The FBI has announced plans to assemble the world's largest biometric database, nicknamed "Next Generation Identification."
"RFID's role is to make the collection and transmission of people's biometric data quick, easy and nonintrusive," says Lerner. "Think of it as the thread that ties together the surveillance package.""
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12816946?nclick_check=1
Associated Press
Posted: 07/11/2009 09:37:12 AM PDT
Updated: 07/11/2009 09:37:17 AM PDT
Climbing into his Volvo, outfitted with a Matrics antenna and a Motorola reader he'd bought on eBay for $190, Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco with this objective: To read the identity cards of strangers, wirelessly, without ever leaving his car.
It took him 20 minutes to strike hacker's gold.
Zipping past Fisherman's Wharf, his scanner detected, then downloaded to his laptop, the unique serial numbers of two pedestrians' electronic U.S. passport cards embedded with radio frequency identification, or RFID, tags. Within an hour, he'd "skimmed" the identifiers of four more of the new, microchipped PASS cards from a distance of 20 feet.
Embedding identity documents — passports, drivers licenses, and the like — with RFID chips is a no-brainer to government officials. Increasingly, they are promoting it as a 21st century application of technology that will help speed border crossings, safeguard credentials against counterfeiters, and keep terrorists from sneaking into the country.
But Paget's February experiment demonstrated something privacy advocates had feared for years: That RFID, coupled with other technologies, could make people trackable without their knowledge or consent.
He filmed his drive-by heist, and soon his video went viral on the Web, intensifying a debate over a push by government, federal and state, to put tracking technologies in identity documents and over their potential to
Advertisement
erode privacy.
Putting a traceable RFID in every pocket has the potential to make everybody a blip on someone's radar screen, critics say, and to redefine Orwellian government snooping for the digital age.
"Little Brother," some are already calling it — even though elements of the global surveillance web they warn against exist only on drawing boards, neither available nor approved for use.
But with advances in tracking technologies coming at an ever-faster rate, critics say, it won't be long before governments could be able to identify and track anyone in real time, 24-7, from a cafe in Paris to the shores of California.
The key to getting such a system to work, these opponents say, is making sure everyone carries an RFID tag linked to a biometric data file.
On June 1, it became mandatory for Americans entering the United States by land or sea from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean to present identity documents embedded with RFID tags, though conventional passports remain valid until they expire.
Among new options are the chipped "e-passport," and the new, electronic PASS card — credit-card sized, with the bearer's digital photograph and a chip that can be scanned through a pocket, backpack or purse from 30 feet.
Alternatively, travelers can use "enhanced" driver's licenses embedded with RFID tags now being issued in some border states: Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York. Texas and Arizona have entered into agreements with the federal government to offer chipped licenses, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has recommended expansion to non-border states. Kansas and Florida officials have received DHS briefings on the licenses, agency records show.
The purpose of using RFID is not to identify people, says Mary Ellen Callahan, the chief privacy officer at Homeland Security, but rather "to verify that the identification document holds valid information about you."
Likewise, U.S. border agents are "pinging" databases only to confirm that licenses aren't counterfeited. "They're not pulling up your speeding tickets," she says, or looking at personal information beyond what is on a passport.
The change is largely about speed and convenience, she says. An RFID document that doubles as a U.S. travel credential "only makes it easier to pull the right record fast enough, to make sure that the border flows, and is operational" — even though a 2005 Government Accountability Office report found that government RFID readers often failed to detect travelers' tags.
Such assurances don't persuade those who liken RFID-embedded documents to barcodes with antennas and contend they create risks to privacy that far outweigh the technology's heralded benefits. They warn it will actually enable identity thieves, stalkers and other criminals to commit "contactless" crimes against victims who won't immediately know they've been violated.
Neville Pattinson, vice president for government affairs at Gemalto, Inc., a major supplier of microchipped cards, is no RFID basher. He's a board member of the Smart Card Alliance, an RFID industry group, and is serving on the Department of Homeland Security's Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee.
Still, Pattinson has sharply criticized the RFIDs in U.S. driver's licenses and passport cards. In a 2007 article for the Privacy Advisor, a newsletter for privacy professionals, he called them vulnerable "to attacks from hackers, identity thieves and possibly even terrorists."
RFID, he wrote, has a fundamental flaw: Each chip is built to faithfully transmit its unique identifier "in the clear, exposing the tag number to interception during the wireless communication."
Once a tag number is intercepted, "it is relatively easy to directly associate it with an individual," he says. "If this is done, then it is possible to make an entire set of movements posing as somebody else without that person's knowledge."
Echoing these concerns were the AeA — the lobbying association for technology firms — the Smart Card Alliance, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Business Travel Coalition, and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
Meanwhile, Homeland Security has been promoting broad use of RFID even though its own advisory committee on data integrity and privacy warned that radio-tagged IDs have the potential to allow "widespread surveillance of individuals" without their knowledge or consent.
In its 2006 draft report, the committee concluded that RFID "increases risks to personal privacy and security, with no commensurate benefit for performance or national security," and recommended that "RFID be disfavored for identifying and tracking human beings."
For now, chipped PASS cards and enhanced driver's licenses are optional and not yet widely deployed in the United States. To date, roughly 192,000 EDLs have been issued in Washington, Vermont, Michigan and New York.
But as more Americans carry them "you can bet that long-range tracking of people on a large scale will rise exponentially," says Paget, a self-described "ethical hacker" who works as an Internet security consultant.
Could RFID numbers eventually become de facto identifiers of Americans, like the Social Security number?
Such a day is not far off, warns Katherine Albrecht, a privacy advocate and co-author of "Spychips," a book that is sharply critical of the use of RFID in consumer items and official ID documents.
"There's a reason you don't wear your Social Security number across your T-shirt," Albrecht says, "and beaming out your new, national RFID number in a 30-foot radius would be far worse."
There are no federal laws against the surreptitious skimming of Americans' RFID numbers, so it won't be long before people seek to profit from this, says Bruce Schneier, an author and chief security officer at BT, the British telecommunications operator.
Data brokers that compile computer dossiers on millions of individuals from public records, credit applications and other sources "will certainly maintain databases of RFID numbers and associated people," he says. "They'd do a disservice to their stockholders if they didn't."
But Gigi Zenk, a spokeswoman for the Washington state Department of Licensing, says Americans "aren't that concerned about the RFID, particularly in this day and age when there are a lot of other ways to access personal information on people."
Tracking an individual is much easier through a cell phone, or a satellite tag embedded in a car, she says. "An RFID that contains no private information, just a randomly assigned number, is probably one of the least things to be concerned about, frankly."
Still, even some ardent RFID supporters recognize that these next-generation RFID cards raise prickly questions.
Mark Roberti, editor of RFID Journal, an industry newsletter, recently acknowledged that as the use of RFID in official documents grows, the potential for abuse increases.
"A government could do this, for instance, to track opponents," he wrote in an opinion piece discussing Paget's cloning experiment. "To date, this type of abuse has not occurred, but it could if governments fail to take privacy issues seriously."
———
Imagine this: Sensors triggered by radio waves instructing cameras to zero in on people carrying RFID, unblinkingly tracking their movements.
Unbelievable? Intrusive? Outrageous?
Actually, it happens every day and makes people smile — at the Alton Towers amusement park in Britain, which videotapes visitors who agree to wear RFID bracelets as they move about the facility, then sells the footage as a keepsake.
This application shows how the technology can be used effortlessly — and benignly. But critics, noting it can also be abused, say federal authorities in the United States didn't do enough from the start to address that risk.
The first U.S. identity document to be embedded with RFID was the "e-passport."
In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks — and the finding that some of the terrorists entered the United States using phony passports — the State Department proposed mandating that Americans and foreign visitors carry "enhanced" passport booklets, with microchips embedded in the covers.
The chips, it announced, would store the holder's information from the data page, a biometric version of the bearer's photo, and receive special coding to prevent data from being altered.
In February 2005, when the State Department asked for public comment, it got an outcry: Of the 2,335 comments received, 98.5 percent were negative, with 86 percent expressing security or privacy concerns, the department reported in an October 2005 notice in the Federal Register.
"Identity theft was of grave concern," it stated, adding that "others expressed fears that the U.S. Government or other governments would use the chip to track and censor, intimidate or otherwise control or harm them."
It also noted that many Americans expressed worries "that the information could be read at distances in excess of 10 feet."
Those concerned citizens, it turns out, had cause.
According to department records obtained by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, under a Freedom of Information Act request and reviewed by the AP, discussion about security concerns with the e-passport occurred as early as January 2003 but tests weren't ordered until the department began receiving public criticism two years later.
When the AP asked when testing was initiated, the State Department said only that "a battery of durability and electromagnetic tests were performed" by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, along with tests "to measure the ability of data on electronic passports to be surreptitiously skimmed or for communications with the chip reader to be eavesdropped," testing which "led to additional privacy controls being placed on U.S. electronic passports ... "
Indeed, in 2005, the department incorporated metallic fibers into the e-passport's front cover, since metal can reduce the range at which RFID can be read. Personal information in the chips was encrypted and a cryptographic "key" added, which required inspectors to optically scan the e-passport first for the chip to communicate wirelessly.
The department also announced it would test e-passports with select employees, before giving them to the public. "We wouldn't be issuing the passports to ourselves if we didn't think they're secure," said Frank Moss, deputy assistant Secretary of State for passport services, in a CNN interview.
But what of Americans' concerns about the e-passport's read range?
In its October 2005 Federal Register notice, the State Department reassured Americans that the e-passport's chip — the ISO 14443 tag — would emit radio waves only within a 4-inch radius, making it tougher to hack.
Technologists in Israel and England, however, soon found otherwise. In May 2006, at the University of Tel Aviv, researchers cobbled together $110 worth of parts from hobbyists kits and directly skimmed an encrypted tag from several feet away. At the University of Cambridge, a student showed that a transmission between an e-passport and a legitimate reader could be intercepted from 160 feet.
The State Department, according to its own records obtained under FOIA, was aware of the problem months before its Federal Register notice and more than a year before the e-passport was rolled out in August 2006.
"Do not claim that these chips can only be read at a distance of 10 cm (4 inches)," Moss wrote in an April 22, 2005, e-mail to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. "That really has been proven to be wrong."
The chips could be skimmed from a yard away, he added — all a hacker would need to read e-passport numbers, say, in an elevator or on a subway.
Other red flags went up. In February 2006, an encrypted Dutch e-passport was hacked on national television, with researchers gaining access to the document's digital photograph, fingerprint and personal data. Then British e-passports were hacked using a $500 reader and software written in less than 48 hours.
The State Department countered by saying European e-passports weren't as safe as their American counterparts because they lacked the cryptographic key and the anti-skimming cover.
But recent studies have shown that more powerful readers can penetrate even the metal sheathing in the U.S. e-passport's cover.
John Brennan, a senior policy adviser at the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs, concedes it may be possible for a reader to overpower the e-passport's protective shield from a distance.
However, he adds, "you could not do this in any large-scale, concerted fashion without putting a bunch of infrastructure in place to make it happen. The practical vulnerabilities may be far less than some of the theoretical scenarios that people have put out there."
That thinking is flawed, says Lee Tien, a senior attorney and surveillance expert with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which opposes RFID in identity documents.
It won't take a massive government project to build reader networks around the country, he says: They will grow organically, for commercial purposes, from convention centers to shopping malls, sports stadiums to college campuses. Federal agencies and law enforcement wouldn't have to control those networks; they already buy information about individuals from commercial data brokers.
"And remember," Tien adds, "technology always gets better ... "
———
With questions swirling around the e-passport's security, why then did the government roll out more RFID-tagged documents — the PASS card and enhanced driver's license, which provide less protection against hackers?
The RFIDs in enhanced driver's licenses and PASS cards are nearly as slim as paper. Each contains a silicon computer chip attached to a wire antenna, which transmits a unique identifier via radio waves when "awakened" by an electromagnetic reader.
The technology they use is designed to track products through the supply chain. These chips, known as EPCglobal Gen 2, have no encryption, and minimal data protection features. They are intended to release their data to any inquiring Gen 2 reader within a 30-foot radius.
This might be appropriate when a supplier is tracking a shipment of toilet paper or dog food; but when personal information is at stake, privacy advocates ask: Is long-range readability truly desirable?
The departments of State and Homeland Security say remotely readable ID cards transmit only RFID numbers that correspond to records stored in government databases, which they say are secure. Even if a hacker were to copy an RFID number onto a blank tag and place it into a counterfeit ID, they say, the forger's face still wouldn't match the true cardholder's photo in the database, rendering it useless.
Still, computer experts such as Schneier say government databases can be hacked. Others worry about a day when hackers might deploy readers at "chokepoints," such as checkout lines, skim RFID numbers from people's driver's licenses, then pair those numbers to personal data skimmed from chipped credit cards (though credit cards are harder to skim). They imagine stalkers using skimmed RFID numbers to track their targets' comings and goings. They fear government agents will compile chip numbers at peace rallies, mosques or gun shows, simply by strolling through a crowd with a reader.
Others worry more about the linking of chips with other identification methods, including biometric technologies, such as facial recognition.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, the U.N. agency that sets global standards for passports, now calls for facial recognition in all scannable e-passports.
Should biometric technologies be coupled with RFID, "governments will have, for the first time in history, the means to identify, monitor and track citizens anywhere in the world in real time," says Mark Lerner, spokesman for the Constitutional Alliance, a network of nonprofit groups, lawmakers and citizens opposed to remotely readable identity and travel documents.
Implausible?
For now, perhaps. Radio tags in EDLs and passport cards can't be scanned miles away.
But scientists are working on technologies that might enable a satellite or a cell tower to scan a chip's contents. Critics also note advances in the sharpness of closed-circuit cameras, and point out they're increasingly ubiquitous. And more fingerprints, iris scans and digitized facial images are being stored in government databases. The FBI has announced plans to assemble the world's largest biometric database, nicknamed "Next Generation Identification."
"RFID's role is to make the collection and transmission of people's biometric data quick, easy and nonintrusive," says Lerner. "Think of it as the thread that ties together the surveillance package.""
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_12816946?nclick_check=1
duminică, 5 iulie 2009
Customizable RFID 125KHz Tag for Industrial Application
"DAILY RFID has recently announced rugged RFID 125KHz tag, which can be easily integrated into many RFID projects. The 125KHz tag is specially designed for industrial applications especially in harsh environments.
The RFID 125KHz tag is specially designed for industrial applications. Made from PET and pressure sensitive material, it can operate well in harsh environments and resist against abrasion, water and corrosion.
This RFID 125KHz tag can be customized in different sizes and shapes. It is engineered to provide a read range from 3cm to 10cm basing on a normal LF RFID Reader, and max 25-50cm basing on DAILY RFID special reader. And each tag from DAILY has a unique ID code for secure application.
The 125KHz tag has been used in many applications, including RFID asset tracking, library management, logistics and anti-counterfeiting, etc. And it is available with IC chips such as the EM4001, Mifare Family, I-Code,TI 256, etc.
Please visit http://www.rfid-in-china.com/products_682_1.html for more information about RFID 125KHz Tag.
About DAILY RFID CO.,LIMITED
DAILY RFID CO.,LIMITED (http://www.rfid-in-china.com), which belongs to PAN Group Co., ltd, is the leading company focusing on the research and development of EPC & RFID technology in China.
DAILY RFID specialize in producing arguably the world's most extensive line of RFID Tag,RFID Label,Smart Card and RFID Reader, which are suitable for any vertical markets, and have obtained the National Integrated Circuit Card Register Certificate, IC Card Manufacture License and ISO9001 Quality Management System Certification. Also, we own a factory covering an area of 26,000 square meters.
DAILY's products are designed and manufactured with recognized industry standards relevant to RFID and its markets but most notably for use in the demanding environments to recognize and understand your business's RFID needs. We are committed to providing "Innovative Technology", "Superior, Cost-efficient Product" and " Professional, Efficient Customer Services"."
http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233671&Itemid=33
The RFID 125KHz tag is specially designed for industrial applications. Made from PET and pressure sensitive material, it can operate well in harsh environments and resist against abrasion, water and corrosion.
This RFID 125KHz tag can be customized in different sizes and shapes. It is engineered to provide a read range from 3cm to 10cm basing on a normal LF RFID Reader, and max 25-50cm basing on DAILY RFID special reader. And each tag from DAILY has a unique ID code for secure application.
The 125KHz tag has been used in many applications, including RFID asset tracking, library management, logistics and anti-counterfeiting, etc. And it is available with IC chips such as the EM4001, Mifare Family, I-Code,TI 256, etc.
Please visit http://www.rfid-in-china.com/products_682_1.html for more information about RFID 125KHz Tag.
About DAILY RFID CO.,LIMITED
DAILY RFID CO.,LIMITED (http://www.rfid-in-china.com), which belongs to PAN Group Co., ltd, is the leading company focusing on the research and development of EPC & RFID technology in China.
DAILY RFID specialize in producing arguably the world's most extensive line of RFID Tag,RFID Label,Smart Card and RFID Reader, which are suitable for any vertical markets, and have obtained the National Integrated Circuit Card Register Certificate, IC Card Manufacture License and ISO9001 Quality Management System Certification. Also, we own a factory covering an area of 26,000 square meters.
DAILY's products are designed and manufactured with recognized industry standards relevant to RFID and its markets but most notably for use in the demanding environments to recognize and understand your business's RFID needs. We are committed to providing "Innovative Technology", "Superior, Cost-efficient Product" and " Professional, Efficient Customer Services"."
http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=233671&Itemid=33
joi, 2 iulie 2009
Baja Beach Club RFID-implants
"It works for Fido, so why not you?
The same RFID implants used to identify lost pets are now being adapted for use on you and me, and not how one might have originally expected. As with all pioneering technologies, it's leisure pursuits that are getting the first stab at the tech.
Specifically: One beach-oriented Barcelona nightclub, the Baja Beach Club, is using the implants to free customers of the burdens of having to carry their purses or wallets. Makes sense: When you're spending the day in a bikini and flip-flops, where do you keep your ID? Instead, the bouncer just scans your arm with an RFID reader, and you're in. And since you can't carry a credit card or cash either, the implants do double duty: You can pay for drinks with a quick scan of the chip. Chipped patrons also gain access to VIP areas of the club.
The implant procedure is simple and mostly painless (except for all the legal paperwork required): The area where the chip is injected is thoroughly numbed, then the glass capsule is injected beneath a layer of skin and fat on the arm.
It's an interesting experiment, and I'm intrigued to see whether the idea will catch on. The catch, of course, becomes what will happen if a lot of clubs in one area decide to do this. One RFID chip under the skin is probably an interesting conversation piece. A dozen in one arm might make you walk funny. Obviously the one-chip-per-establishment system isn't really sustainable in the long run.
Could someone come along and develop a broad human RFID chip standard? Such plans have been being talked about for years, but nothing much has ever come of it. Naturally, security implications are huge: RFID tags can be scanned, copied, and altered by savvy hackers, and it would be a simple matter for a wily crook to scan people en masse as they pass through, say, the entrance of a mall. It's one thing if they're making off with free drinks on your dime, another if they can suck your life away with the wave of a wand.
Pro or con? Well... it's something to think and talk about while you're doing all that drinking!"
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/145515
ABB Opts To Use RFID Technology To Avoid Shipment Errors
"June 30, 2009
RFID technology provides significant benefits to ABB Oy in the management of outbound goods streams. An RFID-based system records movements of goods automatically in the stock control system and prevents loading errors of consignments.
Moreover, the RFID-system offers ABB a significant saving in floor space used. When outbound consignments are loaded, it is no longer necessary to assemble goods in a consolidation area. Instead, goods-vehicle trailers can be used for storage. The automation in question covers around two million transactions per year.
ABB's system uses UPM Raflatac's RFID tags that were implemented by Vilant Systems. All transport units belonging to a consignment are marked with adhesive RFID tags at parcel level. The trailer loading docks are equipped with RFID readers, which scan all loaded parcels. Vilant's RFID software has been integrated with ABB's own SAP system.
The registration number of the vehicle arriving for loading is recorded in the SAP-system and the progress of the delivery is automatically controlled. The system knows what the consignment should include and the gate issues an error warning if there is an attempt to load the wrong goods onto a vehicle. Furthermore, the gate will not close until all goods belonging to a consignment have been loaded onto a vehicle. All this makes it virtually impossible to make incorrect deliveries.
ABB has been using pioneering RFID solutions since 2004. Their first RFID application was designed to control the re-usable plywood boxes which were used in standard raw material deliveries. This system, which is still in use, is based on the fact that all boxes equipped with RFID tags travel through RFID gates both at the supplier and at the factory.
ABB Oy's Head of Processes Julle Ala-Lahti has been pleased with the RFID applications.
"Vilant Systems took full responsibility of the implementation. Their consistent and rigorous approach revealed improvement potential in our material flow and offered prompt results," says Ala-Lahti.
ABB's systems are based on the Vilant Server 5 product family and Vilant Systems' RFID hardware products. UPM Raflatac's RFID tags are used as identifiers.
About ABB Oy ABB is a leading power electronics and automation technology group whose products, systems and services improve the competitive strength of its industrial and energy-company customers in an environmentally friendly way. ABB employs more than 115,000 people in around 100 countries.
About Vilant Systems Founded in 2002 in Finland, Vilant Systems is one of the leading suppliers of RFID applications in Europe. Using RFID solutions developed by Vilant, it is possible to automate corporate activities in the supply chain, production and stock control and thus to create significant savings in the management of goods streams. Vilant RFID software and hardware is integrated with customers' own ERP systems, so that physical process benefits and IT system efficiency can be maximised. www.vilant.com
SOURCE: UPM Raflatac"
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/article.mvc/RFID-Technology-To-Avoid-Shipment-Errors-0001
RFID technology provides significant benefits to ABB Oy in the management of outbound goods streams. An RFID-based system records movements of goods automatically in the stock control system and prevents loading errors of consignments.
Moreover, the RFID-system offers ABB a significant saving in floor space used. When outbound consignments are loaded, it is no longer necessary to assemble goods in a consolidation area. Instead, goods-vehicle trailers can be used for storage. The automation in question covers around two million transactions per year.
ABB's system uses UPM Raflatac's RFID tags that were implemented by Vilant Systems. All transport units belonging to a consignment are marked with adhesive RFID tags at parcel level. The trailer loading docks are equipped with RFID readers, which scan all loaded parcels. Vilant's RFID software has been integrated with ABB's own SAP system.
The registration number of the vehicle arriving for loading is recorded in the SAP-system and the progress of the delivery is automatically controlled. The system knows what the consignment should include and the gate issues an error warning if there is an attempt to load the wrong goods onto a vehicle. Furthermore, the gate will not close until all goods belonging to a consignment have been loaded onto a vehicle. All this makes it virtually impossible to make incorrect deliveries.
ABB has been using pioneering RFID solutions since 2004. Their first RFID application was designed to control the re-usable plywood boxes which were used in standard raw material deliveries. This system, which is still in use, is based on the fact that all boxes equipped with RFID tags travel through RFID gates both at the supplier and at the factory.
ABB Oy's Head of Processes Julle Ala-Lahti has been pleased with the RFID applications.
"Vilant Systems took full responsibility of the implementation. Their consistent and rigorous approach revealed improvement potential in our material flow and offered prompt results," says Ala-Lahti.
ABB's systems are based on the Vilant Server 5 product family and Vilant Systems' RFID hardware products. UPM Raflatac's RFID tags are used as identifiers.
About ABB Oy ABB is a leading power electronics and automation technology group whose products, systems and services improve the competitive strength of its industrial and energy-company customers in an environmentally friendly way. ABB employs more than 115,000 people in around 100 countries.
About Vilant Systems Founded in 2002 in Finland, Vilant Systems is one of the leading suppliers of RFID applications in Europe. Using RFID solutions developed by Vilant, it is possible to automate corporate activities in the supply chain, production and stock control and thus to create significant savings in the management of goods streams. Vilant RFID software and hardware is integrated with customers' own ERP systems, so that physical process benefits and IT system efficiency can be maximised. www.vilant.com
SOURCE: UPM Raflatac"
http://www.rfidsolutionsonline.com/article.mvc/RFID-Technology-To-Avoid-Shipment-Errors-0001
RFID-enabled inventory tracking system
"TCM-RFiD, a Singapore-based real-time tracking solutions and RFID consultancy has been awarded a contract by the SMRT Corporation Ltd (SMRT) for a warehouse inventory system using RFID technology.
The RFID-based system will be used to keep track of items such as engine spares and components used in the maintenance of buses, taxis and trains operated by SMRT, Singapore's premier multi-modal public transport operator.
"The system is designed to improve productivity and enhance shelf-life tracking in inventory management, which will lead to higher service standards in public transportation in Singapore," said Michael Oh, the managing director and founder of TCM RFiD.
"It provides a self check-out system on a 24/7 basis that enables SMRT technicians to correctly identify and retrieve spares thus enabling faster turnaround times for repairs and maintenance," he added.
The project is one of two by TCM RFiD that will benefit from co-funding from the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), under the RFID Innovation Platform initiative.
A*STAR has earmarked a sum of $4.5 million to co-fund 30 RFID pilot projects developed between 2008 and 2012 in both the public and private sectors.
According to Dr Lee Eng Wah, Director, National RFID Centre (Singapore), the pace of innovation in RFID is picking up with Singapore well placed to increase the adoption of RFID in many of its industry verticals.
He added that the RFID Innovation Platform has committed to date, S$1.25 million to fund 11 innovative RFID adoption projects, which has a total value of $3.7 million. "These projects are expected to save the adopters million of dollars through operation cost savings, productivity gains, and business growth," said Dr Lee.
Another project by TCM RFiD that is receiving a financial grant from A*STAR is a RFID-enabled weighing scale that can be used to reduce processing errors, improve efficiency and reduce raw material wastage for a label and barcode printing and solutions provider, Honsen Printing Industries for its inventory management.
TCM RFiD is also the lead solutions provider for a $4 million automated medication system currently deployed by the National Healthcare Group (NHG) for its hospitals in Singapore.
The system - Intelligent Medicine Dispensing System (i-MDS) - is the first of its kind in Asia and runs on customized software developed by TCM RFiD. It is designed for patient safety to prevent inadvertent errors in the dispensation of drugs.
"The system is set up to ensure that all the right procedures are being followed when it comes to the administering of drugs to patients: The right drug, right dosage to the right patient at the right time and by the right method - whether orally, intravenously or by injections," said Mr Oh.
TCM RFiD was one of the winners in the start-up category at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2007 held in Singapore on the strength of its innovative efforts for the development of the i-MDS.
It has also developed an inventory management system currently deployed by a local wine retailer to improve sales and increase staff productivity at its outlet, which was on display at the RFID World Asia 2009 exhibition in Singapore between 22-24 April."
http://www.morerfid.com/details.php?subdetail=Report&action=details&report_id=5941&display=RFID
The RFID-based system will be used to keep track of items such as engine spares and components used in the maintenance of buses, taxis and trains operated by SMRT, Singapore's premier multi-modal public transport operator.
"The system is designed to improve productivity and enhance shelf-life tracking in inventory management, which will lead to higher service standards in public transportation in Singapore," said Michael Oh, the managing director and founder of TCM RFiD.
"It provides a self check-out system on a 24/7 basis that enables SMRT technicians to correctly identify and retrieve spares thus enabling faster turnaround times for repairs and maintenance," he added.
The project is one of two by TCM RFiD that will benefit from co-funding from the Singapore Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR), under the RFID Innovation Platform initiative.
A*STAR has earmarked a sum of $4.5 million to co-fund 30 RFID pilot projects developed between 2008 and 2012 in both the public and private sectors.
According to Dr Lee Eng Wah, Director, National RFID Centre (Singapore), the pace of innovation in RFID is picking up with Singapore well placed to increase the adoption of RFID in many of its industry verticals.
He added that the RFID Innovation Platform has committed to date, S$1.25 million to fund 11 innovative RFID adoption projects, which has a total value of $3.7 million. "These projects are expected to save the adopters million of dollars through operation cost savings, productivity gains, and business growth," said Dr Lee.
Another project by TCM RFiD that is receiving a financial grant from A*STAR is a RFID-enabled weighing scale that can be used to reduce processing errors, improve efficiency and reduce raw material wastage for a label and barcode printing and solutions provider, Honsen Printing Industries for its inventory management.
TCM RFiD is also the lead solutions provider for a $4 million automated medication system currently deployed by the National Healthcare Group (NHG) for its hospitals in Singapore.
The system - Intelligent Medicine Dispensing System (i-MDS) - is the first of its kind in Asia and runs on customized software developed by TCM RFiD. It is designed for patient safety to prevent inadvertent errors in the dispensation of drugs.
"The system is set up to ensure that all the right procedures are being followed when it comes to the administering of drugs to patients: The right drug, right dosage to the right patient at the right time and by the right method - whether orally, intravenously or by injections," said Mr Oh.
TCM RFiD was one of the winners in the start-up category at the Asia Pacific ICT Awards (APICTA) 2007 held in Singapore on the strength of its innovative efforts for the development of the i-MDS.
It has also developed an inventory management system currently deployed by a local wine retailer to improve sales and increase staff productivity at its outlet, which was on display at the RFID World Asia 2009 exhibition in Singapore between 22-24 April."
http://www.morerfid.com/details.php?subdetail=Report&action=details&report_id=5941&display=RFID
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