Identification and Authentication for RFID Systems

Abstract

In this chapter, the author briefly reviews the various attacks on existing identification and authentication schemes and describes the challenges in their design for RFID systems. The chapter categorizes the RFID identification and authentication schemes into two general categories: cryptographic and non-cryptographic solutions. Cryptographic solutions are based on symmetric or asymmetric cryptography systems. Depending on the resources available on the RFID tags, algorithms based on standard cryptography cannot be utilized in an RFID system and new cryptographic algorithms must be designed. However, there remain security challenges in protecting the RFID systems that cannot be solved solely by relying on cryptographic solutions. The chapter also reviews these challenges and looks at the countermeasures based on non-cryptographic solutions that would further protect RFID systems.