Securing RFID Systems by Detecting Tag Cloning

Cloning of RFID tags can lead to financial losses in many commercial RFID applications. There are two general strategies to provide security: prevention and detection. The security community and the RFID chip manufacturers are currently focused on the former by making tags hard to clone. This paper focuses on the latter by investigating a method to pinpoint tags with the same ID. This method is suitable for low-cost tags since it makes use of writing a new random number on the tag’s memory every time the tag is scanned. A back-end that issues these numbers detects tag cloning attacks as soon as both the genuine and the cloned tag are scanned. This paper describes the method and presents a mathematical model of the level of security and an implementation based on EPC tags. The results suggest that the method provides a potentially effective way to secure RFID systems against tag cloning. Key words. Security, clone detection, low-cost, EPC, RFID

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: PERVASIVE
• Authors: Mikko Lehtonen, Daniel Ostojic, Alexander Ilic, Florian Michahelles
• Keywords: Applied Computing, PERVASIVE 2009, RFID, RFID Tags, Tags