Gambling on chips [radiofrequency identification chips - security]

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips are increasingly being used by manufacturing companies for process control and logistics visibility, but a question arises on whether or not they are secure enough for this kind of application. Due to its widespread adoption, RFID security is an issue that affects not only sophisticated stock or manufacturing control systems as it once did, but an increasingly large percentage of the general population. The use of RFID is spreading rapidly, due to diminishing cost and the huge potential for automation it provides. Retail giant Walmart is also evangelising its use - which was the driving force behind widespread adoption of barcodes. By putting its massive influence behind a technology, the company can effectively force suppliers to adopt it too. With this entry into consumer markets will come an inevitable increase in attacks, and engineers will have to realise that security must be designed into a system, not tacked on afterwards.