Securing a Web-Based Anti-counterfeit RFID System

The use of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology can be employed for automating and streamlining safe and accurate brand identification (ID) uniquely in real-time to protect consumers from counterfeited products. By placing brand tags (RFID tags) on brands at the point of manufacture, vendors and retailers can trace products throughout the supply chain. We outline a Web-based Anti-counterfeit RFID System (WARS) to combat counterfeit branding. Despite these potential benefits, security, and privacy issues are the key factors in the deployment of a web-based RFID-enabled system in anti-counterfeiting schemes. This paper proposes an asymmetric cryptosystem to secure RFID transmission in retail supply chain using Elliptic Curve Cryptographic (ECC) techniques. The uses of ECC techniques provide greater strength than other current cryptosystems (such as RSA, and DSA) for any given key length, enables the use of smaller key size, resulting in significantly lower memory requirements, and faster computations, thus, making it suitable for wireless and mobile applications, including handheld devices.