Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
h a l f b a k e r y
The halfway house for at-risk ideas

idea: add, search, annotate, link, view, overview, recent, by name, best, random

meta: news, help, about, links, report a problem

account: Browse anonymously, or get an account and write.

User:
Pass:

or Create a new account.


                            Please log in.
If you're not logged in, you can see what this page looks like, but you will not be able to add anything.

After-the-fact Security
Nullifying the advantage of stolen uniforms
  (+4, -2)
(+4, -2) 		  [vote for,
against]


There was an article in the paper the other day noting that 1000 Canadian security uniforms had been stolen and some of them were showing up for sale on eBay. There's an easy way to make them useless to terrorists and the like - just sew RFID tags into the remaining uniforms and put scanners at the entrances to secure areas. If someone tried to go through without a tag, or they'd sewn their own tag in with a number that didn't match one of those on a secure database, then an alarm would be sound. They make these tags strong enough to go through sterilizers now so there wouldn't be much chance that they'd get damaged in a washing machine or dryer (that's how they track reusable surgical gowns now).
longshot9999, Dec 08 2004


Short name, e.g., Bob's Coffee

Destination URL. E.g., http://www.coffee.com/

Description (displayed with the short name and URL.)







       Are RFID tags hard to fake?
jutta, Dec 10 2004
   

       No.
bristolz, Dec 10 2004
   

       bris - How would a fake tag know what valid response to send if the keys were in a secured database?
longshot9999, Dec 10 2004
   

       This idea is much like the cheap-ass padlock i put on my bag when travelling. It's to /deter/ crime, not to stop it completely. A determined criminal would create the fake RFID tag, would find crack the database, and would gain entry, just as a determined criminal would rip open my backpack with a knife. It's a means, not an end.   

       That being said,from what i've learned from the movies, to get a fake uniform in the first place, you simply club someone with a real one, RFID tag and all.
[ sctld ], Dec 10 2004
   

       Then the thieves will just steal uniforms with sewn-in RFID tags. It would be better not to base your access security on the kind of uniform being worn.
hippo, Dec 10 2004
   

       Don't be silly. If you can't trust a man in a henchman uniform to be a henchman, instead of a hero posing as one, what is the sense in having a secret evil lair?   

       Honestly, sometimes it's like you people don't really want to be Evil Geniuses anymore...
dbsousa, Dec 10 2004
   

       hippo - Two points to consider. First, the uniforms that have already been stolen would be rendered useless if the tags were added to the uniforms that are still in our possession. Second, the database and tags could always be updated with a new set of codes if another theft took place.
longshot9999, Dec 10 2004
   

       Just copy a valid tag, [longshot].
bristolz, Dec 10 2004
   

       I was thinking the tags would respond with a unique ID number. Any uniforms that were stolen would have their ID numbers invalidated, so the thief would have to copy a tag that's still in use (a uniform that hasn't been reported stolen). In that case it would be an inside job that other security measures would have to catch.
longshot9999, Dec 10 2004
   

       And this is different than the extremely common practice of using badges (small RFID ones), rather than relying on uniforms, how? Oh, you're not going to start using badges until you detect uniforms have been misplaced? Nope. [-]
sophocles, Dec 10 2004
   

       sophocles - If it wasn't an issue it wouldn't have been prominently featured in the news.
longshot9999, Dec 10 2004
   

       I guess I should read the news instead of the HB. My apologies. I guess it would be truly newsworthy if a company cared that much about security but didn't use badges of some sort already. Much more newsworthy than just another crime.
sophocles, Dec 10 2004
   


 
back: main index
 business 
 computer 
 culture 
 fashion 
 food 
 halfbakery 
 home 
 other 
 product 
 public 
 science 
 sport 
 vehicle