RFID enabled cards skimming: enhanced technology

Abstract

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an emerging technology to enhance the Bar- code technology. This technology enables the electronic and wireless labelling and identification of objects, humans and animals. The technology can be used for many powerful applications including automatic item tracking, smart home appliances etc. The key idea is to attach each and every item with an RFID tag which can be read by RFID readers via radio communication. RFID technology uses wireless communication in radio frequency bands to transmit data from tags to readers. A reader scans the tag for data and sends the information to a database, which stores the data contained on the tag. RFID networks are getting deployed at a rapid pace and have already entered the public space on a massive scale: public transport cards, the biometric passport, office ID tokens, customer loyalty cards, etc. Although RFID technology offers interesting services to customers and retailers, it could also endanger the privacy of the end-users. The lack of protection mechanisms being deployed could potentially result in a privacy leakage of personal data. It is not a new technology and has been in the public domain for at least 10 years.