
208 CHAPTER TEN
While the blocker tag has been proposed to aid consumer privacy, it could also serve sub-
versive purposes, such as hiding products at the store checkout or launching DoS attacks
on readers.
The efficacy of this approach for enhancing consumer privacy is questionable. Because the
new Gen2 protocol does not singulate by serial number, it partially defeats the blocker tag.
Future readers may also use information from comparisons of signal strength or triangula-
tion to overcome blocker tags.
RFID Security
The motto of Sun Microsystems, “the network is the computer,” seems more true now
then ever before. Today, our personal computers are almost always connected to the
Internet. We are more mobile: we access email, surf the Web, and trade stocks even on
our cell phones. Auto manufacturers are coming up with Internet-enabled cars. Increas-
ingly, more high-end home appliances are web-enabled. As a corporate employee or a
customer, you can access information from anywhere, on almost any device, at any time.
This increased access and mobility has brought forth a host of security-related challenges
for corporations and consumers. As the network becomes our computer, it becomes more
and more important for security to be as an integral part of every IT product and solution.
Connectivity and access assume some level of trust, but when you open up access to your
critical computing systems and ...