Passive and Active RFIDs Paper Example

Introduction

Both Passive and Active RFIDs consist of three main parts: the reader/Interrogator, the antenna and the tags. However, contrary to active RFID tags, the passive ones have only the antenna and the microchip/integrated circuit (IC) (Ting, Kwok, Tsang, & Ho, 2011). Active RFID tags have a battery that provides powerful signals back hence enabling readers to detect it comfortably from far, needless to use power from the reader. Furthermore, active RFID tags can apply extra sensors to identify its environmental changes such as temperature and motion speed, for instance, parking pass tags on your vehicle. Therefore, active RFIDs indeed are an essential innovation for cases where tags bypass scans (Ting, Kwok, Tsang, & Ho, 2011).

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Active RFID tags use a certain amount of battery power each time they send out information. Also, each RFID battery has a limited number of scans and signals. Eventually, the RFID battery will need replacement due to wearing out. Passive RFID tags, on the other hand, are not battery-powered. They only need power from a reader to read their information, for instance, tags on a package of Dior shoes. Additionally, their read range is weaker than that of an active RFID tag.

Finally, there is the semi-passive tag which is battery-powered but lacks an active transmitter, for instance, tags put in an ice cream store's stockroom for monitoring temperature. Therefore, semi-passive tags, like passive tags, still depend on scanner activation. Notwithstanding, their battery is applied in powering different applications with the tag such as sensors.

Definition of terms

RFID Skimming

RFID Skimming merely is identity theft through wireless seizure of information from other people's credit and ID cards, passports RFID chip-based debit cards et cetera (Hancke, 2011). It is common in first generation devices that lack modern anti-RFID security features. Skimming thieves have to be near their targets since it works using a Near Field Communication-enabled device.

RFID Cloning

RFID Cloning is the duplication of an individual's RFID data obtained after skimming to another RFID tab for use in theft cases (Hancke, 2011). There are different ways of preventing RFID cloning with the most secure being the use of cryptographic keys since they cannot be cloned. Other methods include the shielding of RFID devices using a thin layer of aluminum. Aluminum, a metal, blocks signals from entering or leaving the protected devices.

The link that follows demonstrates a video of skimming. I found it informative and helpful in preventing skimming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcSss9BHPFo

Slaughterbots Film

Slaughterbots is a short film that was presented at the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons in Geneva (Korpela, & Saxon, 2018). The central theme of the film is to express the danger of hacking weaponized Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by terrorists. It begins by urging the audience to understand the efficiency and smartness of UAVs. It creates the narrative of nuclear warfare becoming outdated once smart-swarms of weaponized UAVs become normal. A simple target list of enemies is all that would be needed for the drones to locate and eliminate them. It is hard not to imagine how likely a future like this will be. Automatically, a small security breach can lead to unknown parties taking control of the weaponized drones to use for their benefits which sometimes can be harmful.

Dot Com Bubble

The dotcom bubble was an abrupt increase in American equity valuations accelerated by investments in Internet-based companies during the bull market just before the 2000 millennium (Morris, & Alam, 2012). The value of equity markets during this period increased rapidly, with the technology-controlled NASDAQ index climbing from under 1000 to over 5000 between 1995 and 2000 (Morris, & Alam, 2012). The dotcom bubble burst out of a mix of the existence of unpredictable or hypothetical investing, the myriad of investment financing for new businesses and the failure of dotcoms to make profits. Investors and venture capitalists poured money into new Internet businesses in the 90s with the expectation that those companies would one day become profitable, and a majority of them disregarded a cautious approach for fear of missing out on profiting from the growing internet use (Morris, & Alam, 2012).

Biometric Data

Biometrics is a form of authentication used in computer science to identify and grant access to individuals (Uzo, 2015). It comprises the fingerprint, iris recognition, faces recognition et cetera. I have in the past provided biometric data in airports when traveling through iris recognition. Today most large airports demand the signing of passengers to a scheme where their eyes and iris are scanned and their details stored in an international database to fast track clearing before they board planes. I have also provided biometric data through fingerprints to certain buildings I visited to get access. Many high-security facilities are increasingly embracing biometrics to tighten their security.

Zero Privacy

Scott McNealy's 1999 statement, "You have zero privacy anyway, get over it" continues to elicit concerns globally. I believe privacy is sensitive ideally for everyone. However sadly, it is continuously disrespected. The principal infringers of confidentiality today include people, websites and organizations. Social media websites lead this pack; you all remember Facebook's most recent role in privacy infringement of millions of its users in the buildup of the last U.S. presidential elections. Governments too are not far behind. Technological advancement encourages the means people, corporations and governments access sensitive personal information that we would otherwise disclose.

Next, to that, most of us to are careless with our privacy. We continue using different social media sites such as Instagram, Tinder to photos of our loved ones. In this way, we somewhat agree to lose out privacy. Furthermore, the fact that the National Security Agency (NSA) monitors our surveillance reaffirms McNealy's assertion that we indeed do not have privacy. They have the right to access our information from emails, camera surveillance, etc.

Individuals always relish taking full ownership and control of their data. Likewise, people want to be able to control and own information others share with them like phone numbers, photos, and emails. However, no system that allows individuals to monitor whatever happens to this shared information exists. For instance, if a friend shares his/her photos with a friend and I decide to post them widely on social media sites, I am infringing in his/her privacy.

Fingerprint Technology for Cellphones

The provision by favorite smartphone companies such as Samsung, Huawei, and Apple to allow users the convenience of performing multiple transactions online has opened doors to hackers and intruders who exploit fingerprint security. However, the provision might not be as secure as we think. The biometric sensors set in smartphones are small, and hence the resulting images have limited size. Such smartphones mostly get many partial impression of a single finger during registration to guarantee at least one of the stored template matches successfully for authentication to compensate. This is according to researchers from New York University and Michigan State University in an abstract that was done to investigate the likelihood of generating a "Master Print" that matches fingerprints and even more stored templates for different users (Joinson, Reips, Buchanan, & Schofield, 2010).

Biometric Registration in Schools

Schools collecting students data without their parental consent

I think the use of biometrics in schools is a sensitive issue and schools should be in no doubt of their roles. Many parents are uncomfortable with this vice and end up angry when they discover that the school is using their children's data without their knowledge. Some want to live a quiet life that would not infringe on the privacy of their families leading to cases of identity theft. In this respect, I think it is therefore right for parents to give their consent in the matter in this age of internet, identity, and integrity of the data.

Impact of possible biometric theft

The thought of someone stealing your biometric information is not improbable as you might hope. We have already seen practical cases of how people plant false DNA evidence. Any good biologist can do it. Regarding impact, identity theft victims report that it can take up to five years to fix an identity theft issue. Furthermore, it is possible for one to acquire a new credit card in a fortnight once you provide all the information to the bank, but a question that lurks is who will issue you a new set of fingerprints to replace the stolen ones? Suffices to say, the impact of identity theft is disastrous.

Biometric change at the place of work without consent

If an organization that I worked for decided that they were going to introduce a new biometric-based security system that required me to surrender (in addition to the photograph I had likely already supplied them for my ID badge), my fingerprints and a sample of my DNA, I think I would be concerned and ask a lot of questions. I would seek an honest explanation as well as the implications of the change as these touches on my privacy that I regard as a sensitive part. If the answers provided are valid and make sense to me, I would comply with the company. If not, I would voice my concerns and deliberate with them on better ways of doing it differently in a way that would be comfortable for both parties. If this fails to work, I would merely badge out and resign from the company as I feel they would be infringing on my privacy in a way that is not comfortable for me.

References

Hancke, G. P. (2011). Practical eavesdropping and skimming attacks on high-frequency RFID tokens. Journal of Computer Security, 19(2), 259-288.

Joinson, A. N., Reips, U. D., Buchanan, T., & Schofield, C. B. P. (2010). Privacy, trust, and self-disclosure online. Human-Computer Interaction, 25(1), 1-24.

Korpela, C., & Saxon, M. (2018, August). Ethics and Emerging Technologies: Teaching Philosophy with Robotic Weapons System. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence (pp. 127-132). ACM.

Morris, J. J., & Alam, P. (2012). Value relevance and the dot-com bubble of the 1990s. The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 52(2), 243-255.

Ting, S. L., Kwok, S. K., Tsang, A. H., & Ho, G. T. (2011). The study on using passive RFID tags for indoor positioning. International journal of engineering business management, 3(1.), 9-15.

Uzo, C. C. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,177,314. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.