RFID

California passes law to make RFID skimming illegal

Paul Mah — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:33:40 -0400

California this week passed a law that makes it illegal to skim data from RFID cards. Some exceptions are made, such as in the case of a healthcare worker who might need to scan an RFID-enabled health card in order to render aid, or by the police with a warrant. RFID technology is specifically vulnerable to attacks where the victim is left completely unaware, since an attacker armed with a portable reader only need to walk near to his victim in order to wirelessly access the targeted RFID card--an easy task in a crowded subway or city. It remains to be seen whether other states or countries will follow with similar laws specifically targeting this new vector.

To find out more this law:
- check out this article from PC World

20 great ideas to steal

Judi Hasson — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:25:17 -0400

InformationWeek.com has come up with a list of companies that are employing innovative technology ideas that are helping them go green, use voice over IP, enhance security and improve efficiency. Waste Management, for example, has automated its weigh stations with an unattended RFID scale system that recognizes vehicles as they approach and completes the appropriate transactions. This has cut operating costs by 80 percent because the system requires little administration, and saves energy by reducing vehicle idle times.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has moved to a voice-over-IP implementation that supports its nearly 32,000 U.S. partners and staff. By the end of its fiscal year, the company will have achieved cost avoidance of 1 percent of this year's IT budget, with 2 percent in fiscal year 2009, and 2.1 percent in fiscal 2010.

BearingPoint built a wiki to help its employees better manage projects, update documents in real time, and facilitate communications. The Morrison & Foerster law firm has integrated a records management system into its Outlook email system. This places messages into an Outlook folder that are automatically copied into the firm's records management system.

Evanston Northwestern Healthcare implemented bar-code administration of in-patient medications to help prevent medication errors. When caregivers scan the bar codes on patients' wristbands, their electronic charts open on the computers of bedside wireless carts. The medications are then scanned and checked against patients' e-records to ensure that the medications and their method of administration are correct.

For more innovative IT:
- check out this InformationWeek.com article

Court order puts a stop to Defcon talk on subway hacks

Paul Mah — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 09:40:44 -0400

A Defcon conference talk scheduled on Sunday was canceled following a lawsuit by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) against the three Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) students scheduled to present. The students were scheduled to deliver a talk explicitly titled: "The Anatomy of a Subway Hack: Breaking Crypto RFIDs & Magstripes of Ticketing Systems".

MBTA probably didn't react well to some of the topics, which included techniques to clone and reverse-engineering MBTA's CharlieCard. The CharlieCard is based on the same Mifare Classic RFID technology that was cracked earlier this year. Indeed, one of the bylines that has since been removed from the Defcon website described the talk this way: "Want free subway rides for life?" MBTA has reason to be concerned: In court filings, the MBTA noted that 68 percent of its riders use the CharlieCard, which brings in about $475,000 each weekday.

For more on this article:
- check out this NetworkWorld article

RFID still on a roll

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 06:59:58 -0500

RFID is not dead. In fact, it's very much alive. The technology is being used in many commercial sectors and many private companies are now trying it on for size. It may be that RFID got some bad publicity over the issues of privacy and security. But at the end of the day, this is a really neat technology that can help companies track their goods, create a streamlined supply chain and cut the cost of transferring goods from one place to another. We're interested in your stories, too. Let us know how you are using RFID, whether you have had good luck or bad or if it has saved you money.

For more on RFID
- Check out this New York Times article

Will Wal-Mart get its tech groove back?

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 06:59:59 -0400

Wal-Mart is largely credited with pioneering the role of IT as a means for streamlining global retail industry supply chains. Not too long ago, the company was garnering headlines in all of the business and technology publications for these efforts. But in more recent years, IT has played less than a starring role in the firm's operations. The company's once vaulted international expansion plans have not yielded the expected results, and have prompted the company to close facilities in Korea and Germany (The German withdrawal resulted in a $1 billion loss). The reason: an inability to adapt to the local cultures and unseat established players. Analysts also point to poor customer service systems in the U.S., merchandising missteps and setbacks in the company's online initiative. Investments in the deployment of radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags throughout its supply chain have also failed to pan out.

For all the details:
- read the hard-hitting article in CIO

Dow CIO focuses on 10 RFID initiatives

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

As Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology begins to make inroads into some enterprises, CIOs can learn a detail or two from Dow Chemical Chief Information Officer Dave Kepler. After Dow internally asked for RFID project proposals two years ago, it received more than 450. It quickly evaluated the proposals and, based on the company's Six Sigma methodology, started to eliminate the projects down to 10. Dow also established a center of expertise dedicated to RFID. Employees in the group were responsible for identifying the projects and evaluating emerging RFID technologies. After a
six-month evaluation period, the projects approved include: Cylinder tracking-using RFID tags and readers to monitor the transport of gas cylinders; Tanker truck tracking; Rail car tracking and product monitoring; Intermodel container and content tracking; Warehouse and inventory management; Product consignment inventory management; Pipeline worker monitoring; Tracking inventory in the company's Agro Sciences unit; Hazardous material tracking; and Maintenance parts tracking.

For all the details on RFID and Dow Chemical:
- see the article in Baseline

It's Autumn: Let the trade shows begin

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:00:00 -0400

I can tell it's almost Autumn: the trade show season is in full swing. We're including information on news from several shows this week, from RFID to innovation to the InformationWeek 500 conference. InformationWeek always does a great job of tapping into where CIOs are going in the next year. Nearly 40 percent of those surveyed said that they use RFID in a limited number of deployments--though that seems a bit high to me, as RFID does not come up much in my interviews. Nonetheless, there were some pretty nifty applications coming out of RFID World this week. Unsurprisingly, web services technologies are also being implemented quickly. Some 70 percent of companies have widely adopted the technology, while 24 percent say that they are using the technologies in limited use. And Web 2.0, which we cover in the news section, is also on the rise. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed use wikis, blogs, and social networking tools for internal communications, while 27 percent do so with customers. What do you think of the numbers? Are they on track with what's happening in your organization? Let me know. -Patty

Potential RFID risks begin to emerge

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

Ars Technica earlier this month discussed a new report from the Associated Press which
discusses the potential risks involved with RFID devices, including those that have been approved for use in humans. The report mainly points out that animal studies with these types of RFID technologies have been linked to cancer in mice and rats. On an ethical note, the study points to Tommy Thompson who approved a number of these devices when he was in charge of Health and Human Services and later joined the board--and received a number of shares--of a company that produces RFID devices. In terms of the health hazards, this is of course only one survey and the authors are suggesting that that the devices foster cancer by causing inflammation of the tissues that encapsulate them. However, it should be noted that standard metallic ear tags can also do the same.

For more details on RFID:
- read the article in Ars Technica

Finding applications for RFID

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:59:58 -0400

All the talk was around RFID at this week's RFID World in Boston where a lot of the focus was on using second-generation active and passive radio frequency identification tags to provide security and authentication. Up for discussion was the idea of how the average wireless device could soon become an RFID reader or how it could be integrated to give a mobile user easy access to all kinds of data. One attendee told Computerworld that he was investigating how to incorporate RFID technology into cell phones which could be used like a "fast track" or "speed pass" to quickly have a credit card authorized for purchasing fuel or food. MIT also showed off some technology from its labs, including an application that allows someone with diabetes to read his or her blood sugar level with a cell phone that's set up to receive data from an arm patch.

For all the details on RFID:
- see the article in Computerworld

Oracle Takes Wraps Off of "11g"

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:01:39 -0400

This week, Oracle announced the new release of its core database software. Dubbed "11g," the latest code is designed to support fast-moving businesses and the hundreds of terabytes of data that they accumulate. Company officials say that it supports rapid application deployment and is more efficient at using storage than previous releases. The company expects the new drivers for database sales to include the widespread use of imaging--maps, medical images, photos and videos--along with the storage and management of RFID data. But will Oracle's customers make the transition? The main Oracle user group released a survey that shows that 35 percent of the software developer's customer base plans to upgrade within a year of 11g's release, while 53 percent plan to wait "a few years" before they upgrade.

For more on Oracle 11g:
- get the whole picture in this Cnet article