Fergie's Tech Blog

RFID Dust in The News Again: Clandestine Surveillance

(L) Hitachi's infamous mu chip, once heralded as the world's smallest RFID tag, (R) Hitachi's new "weaponized" RFID powder will be used and abused. It is 64 times smaller than the mu chip, measures in at just .05 X.05 mm, but can still hold a unique 38-digit number.

An employee looking to steal confidential information from his employer sneaks into what should be a secure back room after hours. He pulls charts and files from a top-level financial meeting and slides them into his briefcase before heading back out.

What the insider doesn't know is that his shoes picked up hundreds of tiny radio frequency identification (RFID) chips that had been scattered across the floor. As he passes by an RFID reader near the front door of his office building, security will be alerted that he had accessed a secure area. The evidence is all over the soles of his shoes.

Nox Defense, an arm of SimplyRFID Inc., said it has created an invisible perimeter-defense system designed to track things and people in real time -- all without their knowledge. The system that is made up of several technological pieces -- RFID chips the size of grains of sand and an RFID and video camera surveillance system.

posted by Fergie @ 3/21/2008 09:15:00 AM