RFID due for an overhaul

First of all, I would like to offer my apologies for the missing Editor's Corner on Friday. Circumstances beyond my control put a grinding halt to my efforts, midstream. 

One of the topics that I had planned to write about on Friday has to do with RFID. So imagine my interest when I read about a lawsuit filed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to halt a Defcon presentation over the weekend on the topic of...you guessed it: hacking transit systems.

Eventually, a restraining order was issued, and the talk was canceled in the end. The irony, however, is that a vulnerability assessment report [1] (pdf) filed as a supporting document appears to be more explicit about the vulnerabilities in the MBTA system than what could be found in the slides that the restraining order sought to suppress. This is especially ironic when you consider that the said slides were already distributed via the conference CD-ROM before the injunction was issued.

Is it me, or does it appears that a major overhaul of current generation RFID technology is needed? The alternative for now though, might just be to get an RFID defeating wallet [2].

Finally, it appears that the Virtual PC is gaining momentum with the potential to be the next big wave in IT. Speaking of Virtual PCs, I just recalled that Mark Tordik arranged for a trial of a VirtualPC service a while back from a startup named SIMtone Corporation [3]. Admittedly, I have not had a chance to give it a try--though it appears to support all the major platforms: VMware, Hyper-V and Xen. You might want to take a look at it [4]. - Paul [5]