From SCDigest's OnTarget e-Magazine
- Sept. 2, 2015 -
RFID and IoT News Round Up for Sept. 2, 2015
Do You Really Need a RFID-Blocking Wallet? How Will the Internet of Things Change Business? The Internet of Football?
SCDigest Editorial Staff
Here are our top RFID and Internet of Things stories for the week of Sept. 2, 2015:
Do You Really Need a RFID-Blocking Wallet?
A leading credit card companies increasingly add RFID chips to their cards, two cottage industries have emerge: one a group of hackers and television stations demonstrating how easy it appears to be to surreptitiously read data from someone's wallet or purse and in theory use that information for nefarious purposes; and (2) makers of wallets and purposes with shielding that prevents those unwanted tag reads from happening.
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"They are essentially now in the business of selling data as much as they are selling tractors," Marr says. SCDigest says that's a bit of an exaggeration, while still acknowledging the point.
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What Do You Say?
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So should we all race on line to buy such a wallet in the name of protecting ourselves?
Not so fast, says Slate magazine. While the simple technology probabaly works, that doesn't mean you need to spend money on it.
For all the hype about the theoretical danger, there have been few if any reports of actual crimes involving RFID skimming. The technique appears to be far more popular among security researchers than it is among thieves, and for good reason: "There are much easier and more effective ways to steal people's money and data," Slate notes.
Key to that is that credit card technology has changed. The RFID chips now send a one-time code for each transaction, so at best, a determined thief might be able to make a single purchase by recording and replicating the signal he picks up from a given card, and generally the consumer is not liable for the purchase even then.
From the thief's perspective, it's a lot of work for relatively little gain," Slate writes.
Further, a consumer can basically eliminate the risk by simply wrapping the card car in a sleeve made from aluminum foil, without spending money on a new wallet.
Slate says there is real risk with thieves putting data "skimmers" on ATM machines when someone withdraws cash - but an RFID blocking wallet won't protect consumers from that.
How Will the Internet of Things Change Business?
Writing this week on the Forbes.com web site, author and consult Bernard Marr says he sees three main ways the Internet of Things (IoT) will impact business:
1. It will allow companies to make smarter products: While it might seem strange or unnecessary at first glance to have a smart tennis racket, an internet-enabled frying pan, or a smart yoga mat, we are early in the game. Some smart products will have value, others won't, but "the point is that businesses will have the opportunity - and eventually, the imperative - to make "smarter," more useful, more connected products.
 2. Enable smarter business operations and smarter decisions.: The IoT is as much or more about sensors as it is smart things. Sensors can be attached to almost anything, from yogurt cups to the cement in bridges, sending their data back into the Cloud. "This will allow businesses to collect more and more specific feedback on how products or equipment are used, when they break, and even what users might want in the future," Marr said.
3. Change in business model: The IoT provides the potential to significantly change business models, Marr believes.
He cites the example of equipment maker John Deere. Since 2012, the company has added data connectivity to its machines in the field, giving farmers information about which crops to plant where and when, when and where to plow, and even the best route to take while plowing.
"They are essentially now in the business of selling data as much as they are selling tractors," Marr says. SCDigest says that's a bit of an exaggeration, while still acknowledging the point.
(RFID and AIDC Story Continued Below)
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Perhaps as an example of these new business opportunities, the NFL announced this week that after a test last year, an RFID tag (from Zebra Technologies) will embedded in every NFL player's shoulder pads, tracking vector data: each player's speed, distance, and direction traveled during each game in real-time.