New security tags can be sabotaged Cheap radio chips that are
replacing the ubiquitous barcode are a threat to privacy and
susceptible to computer viruses, scientists say. And a
deliberate virus attack could potentially cause chaos at
airports and supermarkets. Researchers at Amsterdam's Free
University created a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip
infected with a virus to prove that RFID systems are vulnerable
despite their extremely low memory capacity. The problem is that
an infected RFID tag, which is read wirelessly when it passes
through a scanning gate, can upset the database that processes
the information on the chip, say the study authors. "Everyone
working on RFID technology has tacitly assumed that the mere act
of scanning an RFID tag cannot modify back-end software and
certainly not in a malicious way. Unfortunately, they are
wrong," they say. "An RFID tag can be infected with a virus and
this virus can infect the back-end database used by the RFID
software. From there it can be easily spread to