Boffinette creates RFID firewall

A GRADUATE STUDENT at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam has worked out a way to create a firewall for RFID tags.

According to Arstechnica, Melanie Rieback's firewall can prevent or allow RFID queries, and can do so on a per-tag basis.

She developed the battery-powered device for personal RFID privacy as part of her PhD into RFID security. She says that it can prevent any outsider seeing what is on the tag.

Rieback is fairly famous as the woman who developed the first RFID virus as a proof of concept. Her idea is that the firewall, which has been named the Guardian, will be incorporated into cell phones and PDAs.

It provides a circular one metre field of control over RFID tags, jamming any tags that the user does not want read.

Apparently it requires a fair bit of power and an Intel XScale PXA270 CPU. Of course the jammer will be a good thing for shoplifters.

More here. µ