SaTC: CORE: Small: Mining Strong Security from Weak RFID Tags

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has played and will continue playing critical roles in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT). Passive ultra-high frequency (UHF) RFID tags are most popular in the market, but most commercial off-the-shelf products do not support cryptographic operations and are particularly vulnerable to spoofing and cloning. Such security concerns severely hinder the application of off-the-shelf passive UHF RFID tags to security-sensitive contexts.

This project also offers an integrated education platform for curriculum development, graduate student training, undergraduate research engagement, broadening participation of female and underrepresented students in computing, and outreach activities in the IoT and cybersecurity domains.

This project aims to boost the applicability of off-the-shelf passive UHF RFID systems to security-sensitive applications such as user authentication, access control to protected physical or electronic resources, and critical asset tracking. The proposed research comprises five integrated thrusts. Thrust 1 is to develop a novel system to fingerprint RFID tags based on their unique frequency-dependent backscatter-power profiles over a wide frequency band.

Thrust 2 is to develop a novel two-factor RFID authentication system based on the user's rhythmic taps on the RFID tag. Thrust 3 is to develop a smartwatch-aided two-factor RFID authentication system based on the anticipated strong correlation between the smartwatch and RFID data. Thrust 4 is to develop a smartwatch-aided continuous authentication system to verify a user's continuous physical presence in a protected area.

Thrust 5 is to prototype all the proposed techniques and evaluate their security and usability through IRB-approved user experiments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.