Inproceedings,
A Platform for RFID Security and Privacy Administration
USENIX/SAGE Large Installation System Administration conference -- LISA'06, page 89-102. Washington DC, USA, (December 2006)
Abstract
This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of
the RFID Guardian, the first-ever unified platform for RFID security
and privacy administration. The RFID Guardian resembles an ``RFID
firewall,'' that monitors and controls access to RFID tags by combining
a standard-issue RFID reader with unique RFID tag emulation capabilities.
Our system provides a platform for both automated and coordinated
usage of RFID security mechanisms, offering fine-grained control
over RFID-based auditing, key management, access control, and authentication
capabilities. We have prototyped the RFID Guardian using off-the-shelf
components, and our experience has shown that active mobile devices
are a valuable tool for managing the security of RFID tags in a variety
of applications, including protecting low-cost tags that are unable
to regulate their own usage.
More philosophically, RFID technology vividly illustrates the difficulties
of security administration in a world of increasingly pervasive,
decentralized, low-cost, and low-power computing. Our paper thus
also offers a glimpse of what system administration may be like in
the future, when laymen face the responsibility to manage systems
of tiny computers that they are barely aware of.
