Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a technology for the automated identification of physical entities using radio frequency transmissions. RFID systems have gained popularity in many applications, such as supply chain management, library systems, e-passports, contactless cards (e.g., proximity cards, automated toll-payment transponders, and payment tokens), identification systems, and human implantation (such as medical-record indexing, and physical access control). Future applications could include smart appliances, shopping, and medication compliance monitoring. RFID is one of the most promising technologies in the field of ubiquitous and pervasive computing. Many new applications can be created by embedding an object with RFID tags. However, the rapid development of RFID systems raises serious privacy and security concerns that could prevent the benefits of RFID technology from being fully utilized. The concerns about RFID systems arise from a) privacy concerns of users about clandestine physical tracking and inventorying of tags; b) authentication problems from counterfeit or cloned tags; and c) communication attacks of jamming, traffic analysis, spoofing, eavesdropping, relay or man-in-the-middle attacks, denial of service attacks, and side-channel attack. Overcoming these concerns will be a significant challenge, because RFID tags do not have sufficient computational power and memory capacity to support standard cryptographic primitives. The proposed research will develop new mechanisms for privacy protection, authentication, and key-distribution for low-cost RFID systems through combinations of physical layer assisted privacy protection, ultra-light crypto engine based core security functions, and private identification security protocols.