New Counterfeit Protection for RFID Fingerprints Tags

Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are now widely used in retail applications as well as application in areas like government processes, industrial processes, manufacturing, logistics and supply-chain operations, and payment administration systems. The ability of hackers to produce counterfeit tags is a growing security concern. Now, researchers at the University of Arkansas have come up with new technology to thwart cloning of passive radio frequency identification tags. The method is based on one or more exclusive physical attributes of individual tags instead of information stored on them, and will augment security and privacy for government agencies, businesses and consumers.

“RFID tags embedded in objects will become the standard way to identify objects and link them to the cyberworld,” according to Dale R. Thompson, associate professor of computer science and computer engineering. “However, it is easy to clone an RFID tag by copying the contents of its memory and applying them to a new, counterfeit tag, which can then be attached to a counterfeit product – or person, in the case of these new e-passports. What we’ve developed is an electronic fingerprinting system to prevent this from happening.”

A passive RFID tag gets its power externally from an RFID reader, which sends radio frequency signals to the tag. The tag, made up of a microchip connected to a radio antenna, modulates the signal and communicates back to the reader. Working with an test device to determine the best placement of RFID tags on packages, the researchers measured tags’ minimum power response at multiple frequencies.

“Repeatedly, our experiments demonstrated that the minimum power response at multiple frequencies is unique for each tag,” Thompson said. “These different responses are just one of several unique physical characteristics that allowed us to create an electronic fingerprint to identify the tag with high probability and to detect counterfeit tags.”