ABSTRACT
A radio frequency identification device (RFID) technology is poised to revolutionize supply-chain management and the retail industry. This chapter examines various approaches to RFID security. It presents several examples of low overhead authentication algorithms. The chapter provides an algorithm for mutual tag and reader authentication—M2M that is specialized for the rental agency setting. It describes a reader-only authentication algorithm— proactive informational secure protocol (PISP). The chapter explores how low overhead algorithms such as M2M and PISP can be concurrently applied to multiple tags. It discusses the potential of low overhead cryptography in RFID applications. The apparent vulnerability of low overhead cryptography appears to limit its usability for RFID security. The security of algorithm is based on the difficulty of recovering the multiplicand or multiplier from the product of matrix multiplication. The need to adequately address RFID security and privacy is important for the technology to fully realize its potential.
