Car thieves steal finger (pdf) of a car owner to start the car. People always seem to think that someone is going to come cut my hand off to gain access to my house or my car. There is a significant difference between RFID and biometrics. The car in the article above used a fingerprint to disable the immobilizer (a valid fingerprint enables the car to start). Even with a key, the car would not start until the fingerprint was given. I’m not afraid of my hand getting lopped off. You can’t give up a fingerprint to thieves, but if someone was coming at me to cut my hand off for my RFID tag, you can bet I’d either give them the car key, give them a backup RFID access card in my wallet, or worse case I’d bite or cut that thing out from of under my skin before they got near me to cut my hand off.
I noticed two (pdf) posts (pdf) on RFID Update.
I’ve decided to launch a mobile messaging company called txtGroups, a company that deals with SMS text messaging. I’m now working on integrating SMS based monitoring and management of my RFID access systems. This would let me give a keyfob RFID tag to a friend and authorize entry into my house via my cell phone. It would work like this: Friend shows up at my house and tries to pass RFID tag to get in. System alerts me via SMS text message on my phone. I can respond with “allow” code that lets the tag work for 10, 20 or maybe 60 minutes, allowing my friend access to my house. Real-time, mobile access management.
