A team of University engineers working on a project to improve the security of radio frequency identification computer chips recently received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation.
RFIDs are small, patch-like devices primarily used to transmit information over very short distances to devices capable of reading them, said John Lach, University associate electrical and computer engineering professor. For example, an RFID reader can be used in place of a barcode scanner to scan multiple items at a time, Lach said. He also noted that they can be used for purposes such as storing passport data or medical records.
The potential use of RFIDs to store such sensitive data, however, raises concerns about the security of those devices. Assoc. Computer Science Prof. David Evans, who is also the lead researcher on the project, said the challenge of the project is to figure out how to allow only “the legitimate readers” to access information on RFIDs while not surpassing “the fundamental limits of how much security you can get with such a simple circuit.”
To accomplish this goal, Evans said, the research team is working on creating hash functions for RFIDs. He explained that these functions leave the reading device unable to read the data on the RFID without possessing the appropriate key.
Using hash functions rather than encryption functions would place lower computational demands on the RFID because the reading device mostly would be responsible for decoding the transmitted information, Evans said.
Evans also explained that the RFIDs have another constraint: They only can use a certain amount of power. He explained that this is because a less power-efficient device, such as an RFID, has a smaller window of time to be read by the reading device because it has to be closer to the reader before it starts working.
Lach emphasized the importance of staying within the limits of the RFIDs’ computational abilities, noting that the small devices “provide sort of the ultimate in resource-constrained platforms ... they’re so small, they’re so inexpensive, they don’t have any power source at all.”
Evans and Lach noted that the project will call for close collaboration between the computer scientists on the team, namely Evans and Asst. Computer Science Prof. Abhi Shelat, and the hardware engineers, Lach and Ben Calhoun, University assistant electrical and computer engineering professor.
Lach said the collaboration will help to resolve the issue of how much of a trade-off should be made between improving security while not exceeding the limited computational abilities of such small devices.
Evans agreed, noting that “the connections between the hardware and software design are really important, and that’s one of the reasons we think we can [build upon]” previous efforts to improve the security of the devices.
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