Remember when RFID was the next big thing? When the world couldn't wait to have their luggage easily tracked at every airport? And when supply chain managers were all set to kick back and let these little tags do all the dirty work? Outside of a few exceptions, the wireless tags haven't really lived up to the hype thus far, but GE Global Research is doing its darnedest to change that by eliminating a few of the biggest drawbacks. Reportedly, the outfit has developed a battery-free RFID sensing platform -- one that can provide a highly selective response to multiple chemicals under variable conditions -- which could enable a "wide range of low-cost wireless sensing products in industries like healthcare, security, food packaging, etc." Put simply, the tags get their power from the sensor reader, which activates the tag's antenna and the RFID chip to collect meaningful data. There's no word on when these will leave the lab, but the sooner the better, we say.

[Via Gizmag]

As fantastical as NFC and contactless applications are, they're still relatively unknown in the grand scheme of things here on this side of the drink. Thankfully, AIRTAG is stepping up in hopes of giving us Earthlings (and by that, we mean North Americans) a few more options. The conceitedly-named AIRTAG KIT is hailed as an "NFC development kit for end-users, professionals and developers" that will enable them to "program tags to NFC standards, to communicate with all NFC mobile phones and to develop secured applications compliant with the industry standards." It's still hard to say how many devs will shell out €249 ($344) for the privilege of expanding the protocol, but at least it's out there for those who get curious.

What can we say about RFIDs that hasn't already made you afraid? Your passport? Clonable. Your work ID and "secure" credit cards? Yeah, those too. Not scary enough? How about every adult New Yorker walking around with one in their back pocket? It's just a matter of time, as the Empire State's clearly enhanced drivers licenses (says so right on 'em) are now hitting the streets. For $30 on a new one, or $10 if you're looking to upgrade, you can get yourself a radio-wave emitting ID, enabling you to cross the border into Mexico, Canada, or the Caribbean sans-passport. Don't worry, the cards won't be broadcasting any personal information -- just a unique code that the government can use to track your every movement.

[Via Crave]

This era of RFIDs everywhere means a new era of hacking, one where a reader and a copy of RFDump are just as important as a proxied Internet connection and a telnet client were in the past. As MythBusters attempted to show, existing RFID chips and tags seem universally hackable and clonable, whether they be inside your passport or inside of you, but a new one from Verayo is said to be totally impenetrable -- for reals this time. It uses Physical Unclonable Functions, or PUF, a randomized coating of wires that both protect the internals from interlopers and also return a (supposedly) unique identifier that (supposedly) can't be duped. Truth in advertising? Hackers worldwide are itching to find out after the thing's formal introduction tomorrow morning at the RFID World conference -- surely the hottest ticket in Vegas this week.

[Via Slashdot]

In an effort to facilitate ticket purchasing, SNCF -- France's public rail system -- will commence a 1,000 user trial of its Weneo smart card system this Fall. Riders will be able to purchase tickets with the small USB dongles at turnstiles via RFID. Once the balance is depleted, users can refill their accounts by plugging the devices into a computer, whereby they're transported to the SNCF's online hub. Since only the rider's account number is stored in the RFID portion of the smart card, this system allows commuters hassle-free ticket purchasing, all while keeping important information privy from hackers - information that some RFID devices seem to have problems keeping secret. If all goes well, SNCF expects to expand the use of Weneo nationwide by 2010.

[Via Wired]

It's no secret that RFID isn't the most secure thing in the world, so we mostly took Adam Savage's story about Discovery telling the Mythbusters to back off an episode exposing the tech's flaws after a conference call with various cred card company lawyers as a bit of laughable corporate insecurity, but it looks like Adam got himself in a bit of trouble by sharing -- Discovery's now sending out a release in which he basically retracts the whole thing. "There's been a lot of talk about this RFID thing, and I have to admit that I got some of my facts wrong... Texas Instruments' account of their call with Grant and our producer is factually correct [and] the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department." Sure, that doesn't explain why he said that Tory "still gets a little white" when he remembers the phone call, or why he said RFID was "on Discovery's radar," but we're guessing it has more to do with simple exaggeration than devious conspiracy. At least we hope so.

Although it's no secret that RFID is easily hacked (see: train passes, passports, credit cards, one billion other cards, etc.) it's still not necessarily common knowledge, and it sounds like the major credit card companies want to keep it that way -- according to Adam Savage, Mythbusters was all set to do a show exposing the weak security behind most RFID implementations but was shut down by lawyers from "American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else... [who] absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode." Since Discovery is an ad-supported channel, it's not surprising that it backed down, but we'd say that the credit card industry would be far better served spending money on actually improving security rather than lawyering up and trying to keep consumers in the dark. Video after the break.

[Via Wired]

While we'll always know Violet for its iconic bunnies, the company is branching out into a more direct RFID application. The Mirror RFID reader is a USB-pluggable little platter that can read RFID tags and launch an assigned action on the computer when it spots a tag it knows. Examples we saw included a tagged post card of Vegas launching a corresponding picture on the computer (lame), a tagged toy car bringing up a map (getting warmer), a tagged umbrella launching the weather forecast (now we're cooking with gas), and a cute little mini-Nabaztag figurine doing whatever it wants (en fuego / choose your own tired metaphor). We could see the reader being put to use for the computer illiterate, or children having their first go at a PC, but we're more excited to see what hackers can make of the tech -- old people and children are overrated. No word on price or release date yet, but Violet has a press conferenced planned for Monday, so we should know more then.

No surprise here, but the kids from MIT were (presumably) right all along. The three students who were muffled just before presenting their case at Defcon have finally been freed; the now-revoked gag order had prevented them from exposing insecurities in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ticket system, but during the same court setting, the MBTA fessed up and admitted that its current system was indeed vulnerable. Of note, it only confessed that its CharlieTicket system was susceptible to fraud, while simply not acknowledging any flaws in the more popular CharlieCard option. Pish posh -- who here believes it doesn't have dutiful employees working up a fix as we speak?

This one's a bit morbid, but the technology behind it all is actually quite interesting. Japan's own Nichiryoku has evidently created a unique urn retrieval system that enables family members with deceased loved ones to return to a reverent storage facility, swipe an RFID card, and watch their late mother / father / etc. emerge from the underground for viewing. Aside from saving space and money, this also provides mourning kin with a sense of security, as we're told that the urns are kept where even minor acts of God won't disturb them. Check out a demonstrative video just after the break.

[Via CScout]

Ah, Black Hat. How we adore you. Each year there's always one speaker who shows up and completely undermines something that most people assume is rock solid. This year, our pals at Hack-A-Day were in attendance to hear Nate Lawson expose California's FasTrak toll system for the security hole that it is. Essentially, toll transponders that are purchased and slapped onto vehicles offer up exactly no authentication, meaning that anyone with an ill will and an RFID reader could wander through a parking lot and lift all sorts of useful information. Think it can't get worse? The transponders reportedly support "unauthenticated over the air upgrading," which means that each tag could be forced to take on a new ID if the right equipment was present. We don't have to spell out "potential disaster" for you, now do we?

[Image courtesy of Mindfully]

It's downright frightening that we've become numb to this news, but here again we're faced with another report of e-passports being hacked within minutes. The University of Amsterdam's Jeroen van Beek was reportedly able to clone and manipulate a pair of British passports in about the time it takes you to sip down your first cup of joe in the morning, and worse still, they were accepted as genuine by the software "recommended for use at international airports." The tests point out a number of vulnerabilities, including the fact that the microchips could be susceptible to having falsified biometrics inserted for use. As expected, talking heads at the Home Office still insist that any chip manipulation would be immediately recognized by the electronic readers, so we'll leave it up to you to decide who's telling the truth here.