So Adi Shamir, co-author of the SHA-1 hashing standard with Ron Rivest, announced at the RSA Conference that after spending some time with an antenna and digital oscilloscope he was able to quickly familiarize himself with even the bit-for-bit transactions made between readers and RFID tags. Using these scanning techniques for cracking the crypto wasn't expressly mentioned, but Shamir did announce that a modified cellphone would have more than enough power to attack and compromise all RFID tags in the vicinity. So, is it time to panic on RFID? No, we don't think so, not yet, but we certainly do think these guys proved their point: the powers that be pushing RFID should probably start consulting the industry's top security analysts before, not after, shipping product (or implanting tags into their employees).

[Via Slashdot]