RFID Virus - The War Continues

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on March 22, 2006

AIM Global has come in defense of RFID Technology by questioning the technical paper - 'Is Your Cat Infected with a Computer Virus'. According to the paper RFID tags can be used for corrupting databases and even potentially to spread computer viruses.

Here is what AIM has to say:

According to AIM, the study has overlooked a number of fundamental design features which are necessary in automatic data collection systems and good database design.

It further says that poor system design is bound to create vulnerabilities while capturing bar code information or RFID tag information.

The trade group also threw light on the fact that there two broad categories of RFID tags- one which has fixed data and other in which data can be changed of which the former one is immune to infection by virus.

It also noted that the ability to insert a virus into the system implies that a tag contains executable code that can be recognized by the software but according to it was not possible with many RFID applications as they looked for specific kinds of data and would either flag or reject anything that does not fit the data template.

I simply don't know when this confusion is gonna end. I believe that these kinds of reports are not going to do any good to RFID. With this kind of uncertainty surrounding RFID, it could have serious repercussions in terms of the progress of the technology and its commercialization. Why doesn't some specialized RFID body come ahead and end this confusion once and for all? I simply can't bear this.