Scalable RFID security framework and protocol supporting Internet of Things

Abstract Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is seen as one of the requirements for the implementation of the Internet-of-Things (IoT). However, an RFID system has to be equipped with a holistic security framework for a secure and scalable operation. Although much work has been done to provide privacy and anonymity, little focus has been given to performance, scalability and customizability issues to support robust implementation of IoT. Also, existing protocols suffer from a number of deficiencies such as insecure or inefficient identification techniques, throughput delay and inadaptability. In this paper, we propose a novel identification technique based on a hybrid approach (group-based approach and collaborative approach) and security check handoff (SCH) for RFID systems with mobility. The proposed protocol provides customizability and adaptability as well as ensuring the secure and scalable deployment of an RFID system to support a robust distributed structure such as the IoT. The protocol has an extra fold of protection against malware using an incorporated malware detection technique. We evaluated the protocol using a randomness battery test and the results show that the protocol offers better security, scalability and customizability than the existing protocols.