WEAPONS: The RFID zapper

Radio frequency IDs (RFIDs), small electronic chips that share information when scanned, are rapidly becoming an essential part of global supply management. In order to correctly route and track items from inception to purchase, these chips are attached to packaging and increasingly the products themselves.

The intentional disabling of these chips can cause supply chain disruption. The best method is to HERF (high energy radio frequency, usually microwaves) the chips using a small transmitter (read about high power home made microwave weapons for herfing). The German branch (privacy activists) of the global guerrilla innovation network has developed a simple solution that converts a standard film camera into a short range RFID zapper. This system:

"...copies the microwave-oven-method, but in a much smaller scale. It generates a strong electromagnetic field with a coil, which should be placed as near to the target-RFID-Tag as possible. The RFID-Tag then will recive a strong shock of energy comparable with an EMP and some part of it will blow, most likely the capacitator, thus deactivating the chip forever.

To keep the costs of the RFID-Zapper as low as possible, we decided to modify the electric component of a singe-use-camera with flashlight, as can be found almost everywhere. The coil is made from varnished wire and placed inside the camera exactly where the film has been.

Then the coil is soldered between the cameras electronic and its flashlight. Last but not least most single-use-cameras will require some kind of switch to be build into them, since their activating-mechanism usually is to small and primitive. Once the switch is connected and tested, the camera can be closed again and henceforth will serve as a RFID-Zapper, destroying RFID-Tags with the power of ordinary batteries."

Comments

[David Lewis]

I don't understand how close-range disabling of an RFID chip is going to cause "supply chain chaos". Each item's RFID would have to be taken out one at a time.

The only way to cause larger disruption would be either (a) a device that would disable at a medium range, a large enough distance to take out all RFIDs in, say, a shipyard or warehouse; (b) something to disable the receivers.

For that medium-range disabling I suspect the energy needed would be pretty significant, and the device large and powerful. As for disabling the receivers, you might as well just take out all the computers in a shipyard, which would cause even more chaos! But again, that would probably require a very large jolt.

I imagine the best use of those camera-based devices is for shoplifters to zap the RFID tags on merchandise. Now there's a threat! ;-)))

[John Robb]

I think you need to look downstream on the trend lines for RFID use(particularly in combination with GPS chips) to fully grasp the impact of this. Larger and more powerful devices are in development, this is merely a device that can be made right now that fits in a pocket and can be used against much more than just RFID chips.

[David Lewis]

Yup, bigger devices will be needed to go beyond petty theft. But how big?

I don't know the exact physics, but I suspect the power of the jolt varies inversely with the square of the distance, like electromagnetic radiation, gravity, electrical fields, etc. The reason is geometric. See...

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/forces/isq.html

So, if the power needed to work at, say, 1 foot is p, then you need 1,000,000*p to work at 1000 feet. So, you're talking some pretty big, powerful apparatus.

And yes, if you can kill the RFIDs, you'll also probably get all computers, cell phones, digital cameras, electronic vehicle controllers and IPods.

Kill all IPods -- now there's a threat ;-)))

--David.

[Don Marti]

If you want to disrupt a supply chain, and you can get close enough to RFID tags to zap them, why not just modify an RFID tag to trigger a small bomb when scanned, and plant that on the pallet? You know it will go off at a key location: the RFID scanning station.

[Kim McDodge]

'Shaping Things' is Bruce Sterling's take on this and the trajectory we are in, going thru these waves of technos, both logical and ill. In an interview with Business Week he mentions the immediacy of the use of arphids in combat.

http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/innovation/innovation_12_13_05.htm?campaign_id=search

[katie]

if you want info on a medium scale personal emp device checkout the ibomb at eiu.org

[mike]

The way you disrupt a supply chain with this device is not to take out the RFID of each item, but the RFID of the pallet or crate the item is in. this is much easier for one, and two if thirty pallets have their tags ruined thats thirty pallets sitting in a warehouse taking up space while also taking up man hours to hunt down where they go. also if you wanted to do more damage, it is possible to build an EMP device that fits in a backpage that can clear a ten foot radius. there are basic plans (though they leave a few things out) in a book i think called "electronic projects for evil geniouses". They sell the book in most Borders.

[Roomba]

You get the same EMP efect if you blow up a nuke bomb and you get better range. Lets kill all the RFID tags!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

[Sir_Fartsalot]

I disable RFID chips with my heinous farts. Their massive sonic boom can shatter glass.

[David Lewis]

I still like the shoplifting idea best. If the EMP-in-a-camera device gets around, then RFID in retail becomes useless, which might kill the whole thing. RFID and chips would lose a major portion of their market, not to mention trust factor in general.

Another idea is to drop a couple of those babies at some well-chosen tollgates on the NYS Thruway, Mass Pike or whatever at 5:00 PM. The resulting traffic jam would set western civilization back at least 15 years!

[Lewis Perdue]

Don't forget: all new U.S. passports will contain RFIDs which can be read at a distance, thus offering opportunities to ID thieves and terrorists looking for a good target ... perhaps a pre-vacation zapping would make citizens safer.

On a related topic, I described an explosive-compressed EMP weapon two novels ago in Slatewiper.

[Lewis Perdue]

Also not to be forgotten: because it's not all that hard to build a directed, explosively compressed EMP weapon, it would also be possible to bring down a fly-by-wire commercial aircraft such as the Airbus and newer Boeings.

[blah blah]

I think when they say disrupt the supply chain, they mean disable a rfid tag so you can steal stuff.

[miscblogger]

thats pretty sweet! i was wondering. do i have to flash. or does it just have to be near it?

[doofy]

You'd have to charge the flash, possibly fully. It'll be the capacitor that would produce the necessary energy to disable the RFIDs. I'd imagine you'd have to push the "capture" button, which would release the stored charge, bypassing the flash into the wiring he was refering to.

I believe.

[m]

Most stores will not allow the use of a camera on their premises. Not that they would think it is repurposed as a RFID zapper, their concerns are that illicit activity or unlawful marketing on the part of the store is being documented.

[none]

www.mobilecloak.com

[mike smith]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-12-29-camera-laws_x.htm

[mm]

M,
Regarding stores not allowing you on their premises with a camera ... this article says otherwise.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-12-29-camera-laws_x.htm

[Jeremiah]

I'm a little out of my element here, but I get the sense John's trying to get us to think of the longer term implications - not only of RFID, but the capacity to disrupt the network/nodes that RFID relies on.

Consider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalf%27s_Law
Metcalfe's Law, which posits the value of a network increases exponentially as nodes are added. This means that each node has a gradually increasing value itself, and with that increase in value comes the proportional increase in risk.

By the time RFID networks are ubiquitous and entrenched enough to morph into a public utility (i.e., Internet, GPS, weather, etc), devices like this will post measurable threats to the stability of interdependent social and economic systems.

John, you have a moment to offer a sanity-check on my interpretation?

[Sean Moriva]

Speaking for the Urban Youth, this CERTAINLY has applications for shoplifting.

We're all just doing our part to help bring down the beast, as it were.

Too bad, really. I rather began to enjoy the old girl.

[m4e]

The most current/appropriate use of this device should be to disable the RFID chipped US Passports, as previously posted..."pre-vacation zapping would make citizens safer"

[ouille]

what about confounding the supply chains by adding extra tags to the packaging and pallets?

if one knows where exactly the tag is it's antennae could be cut with a razor or chip crushed with needle nose pliers. maybe?

what's most needed more than shoplifting is a legal/medical/technical excuse from taking the subdermal implant when it becomes "mandatory", leaving the majority who don't care to their own arphid devices. you naughty boys at this website could make some friends by helping some underground christians who may have all the free food come crunch time.

or just put yer passport in the microwave at 7-11 on yer way to the airport.

[Scott Stanfield]

A few considerations on RFID. Stores like Walmart may think it is neat to scan the whole cart and take inventory. So if I think a price is wrong what do I do? Look at the receipt after I pay to argue the point, only to go to a long line at customer service because the next person is now being checked out? After I purchase the item is the tag de-activated? No, probably because of the return issue. Will thieves be able to scan what is in our cars, homes, etc to know what is there to steal. See it's not just about "the stores". How would the ladies like it if someone at the store could tell what size and brand of underwear they are wearing while shopping, etc.? How would you like your car scanned for its contents? Will police not need warrents to scan our possesions?

Privacy has suffered a great deal in our "free society"; how much more will freedom loving Americans be willing to sacrifice? And why?