RFID Password Management Methods for Falsification Prevention in Bookstore Management using Secure RFID tags

ICETE 2008 (International Joint Conference on e-Business and Telecommunications) was held in Porto, Portugal from July 26th to 29th, 2008. This conference dedicates a growing effort to increase the dissemination of recent research results among professionals who work on the e-business field. The topics of this conference are related to information and communication technologies and include e-business, wireless networks and information systems, security and cryptography, signal processing and multimedia applications. In the program for ICETE, there were keynote lectures, tutorials, papers and posters to present the widest possible view on these technical areas. ICETE has received 440 papers in total, with contributions from more than 40 different countries from all continents. In the end, 261 papers were selected and were presented in this conference.

The uVALUE Innovation Research Department of Systems Development Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. presented a paper titled "RFID Password Management Methods for Falsification Prevention in Bookstore Management using Secure RFID tags" as a poster presentation. Following is an overview of this paper.

The shoplifting of books is a serious problem in Japan. A report says that there are many shoplifted books for resale. The publishing industry in Japan is examining a method for attaching an RFID tag to books, which records receipt data on the RFID tag memory. However, there is a risk of someone reselling a shoplifted book to a second-hand bookstore, after illegally overwriting the receipt data in the RFID tag. So a method for protecting the data in the RFID tag is needed. There are several methods that mount hash logic on an RFID tag and authenticate the user to protect the RFID data. However, these methods are not realistic in a situation in which an RFID tag is attached to a book because mounting advanced calculation logic on an RFID tag requires a larger IC chip, which increases the cost of the RFID tag.

µ-Chip Hibiki is low cost RFID. This type of RFID tag protects data using a simple password authentication method. We chose to useµ-Chip Hibiki because these tags are smaller, cost less, and suitable for attaching to books. It is very important to manage an RFID password when usingµ-Chip Hibiki. We proposed methods that useµ-Chip Hibiki and manage by using as a RFID password the calculated data on the RFID tag memory by the specific logic. These proposed methods were explained by the point of phases of RFID passwords, and the ways in which a password is associated with a RFID tag. We showed that these methods decreased the probability of falsification to about 5% or less in this situation. These results are useful for RFID password management in bookstores.