RFID barcodes can carry viruses

BOFFINS at Amsterdam's Free University have managed to infect a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip with a virus.

The experiment was designed to show that despite the low memory on RFID chips they are still vulnerable to attack.

An infected RFID tag can upset the database that processes the information on the chip.

According to the study by Melanie Rieback, Bruno Crispo and Andrew Tanenbaum, people have made a mistake by thinking that scanning an RFID tag could not modify back-end software. Not only is it a doddle, but it could easily be spread to other RFID tags.

It means that a terrorist could use an infected RFID tag to upset airline baggage handling systems so that it was possible to smuggle a bomb on board.

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