RFID system with allowers

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a new approach for RFID users' privacy protection that is in some sense complementary to well-known blocker tag due to Juels et al. The main idea behind our scheme is to add a special device called allower to a batch of tags in order to make reading RFID-tags possible. When the allower is switched-off reading is not possible. From the users' point of view functionality provided by the system is exactly the same -indeed one device must be activated/deactivated in order to make reading possible/to protect other tags from reading and protect privacy in hostile environment. We claim our approach to offer higher level of security in many situations and can be more usable, despite of some shortcomings we describe. In our paper we present techniques that realize our idea. We discuss also security and efficiency analysis. We also present some extensions of the basic scheme.

Blocker-Type Methods for Protecting Customers' Privacy in RFID Systems

“…Blocker tags prevent reader from singulating the desired tag, however an adversary equipped with signal's power reader can easily determine IDs of actual RFID tags. Another method of providing security for RFID tags was presented in [8] and it uses slightly modified tags together with a device called Allower to hide tags' IDs. Tags instead of transmitting their response to the reader, obfuscate their signal, so that without the Allower it is unreadable.…”

“…We call it Proxy allower (denoted as P A ). This idea can be seen as an extension of Allower presented in [8]. Fundamental component of P A system is a RFID tag with severely limited radio range.…”