Virus Scare Haunts RFID

Filed in archive Tags and Readers on March 16, 2006

RFID tags subject to viruses sound malicious but true. Researchers are increasingly becoming aware of this threat. It has been found that viruses can be implanted in RFID tags by way of a SQL injection or a buffer overflow. It took a master's student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam just four hours to write a virus small enough to fit on an RFID tag.

Viruses in RFID tags are round the corner. The priority at this point should be to develop new and better tags that are able to defy such threats. Security issues have always been questioned regarding RFID but the news about viruses in RFID tags is certainly going to dent the confidence in this technology and hamper its growth to some extent if not fully. This certainly is a wake up call before this technology is implemented on a larger scale.