Fingerprinting RFID Tags With Transfer-of-Ownership Capabilities

Dale R. Thompson and Jia Dia, associate professors of computer science and computer engineering at the University of Arkansas, have received a $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a technology that will redefine the authentication of a passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tag from being something the tag “knows” to being something the tag “is,” like a fingerprint.

They will also develop new hardware primitives for transferring ownership of the tag by manipulating the fingerprint in a controlled way. The research will lead to secure and private contactless identification and transfer of ownership of objects. See http://rfidsecurity.uark.edu for more details.