RFID-Zapper Make your own out of disposable camera

[Guest guest]

A

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 21:34:22 -0400

RFID-Zapper Make your own out of disposable camera

 

 

 

 

RFID-Zapper Make your own out of disposable camera

 

see below

 

 

 

RFID Journal - RFID-Zapper Shoots to Kill

 

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/2098/1/1/

 

RFID-Zapper Shoots to Kill

Two students turned a disposable camera into a gadget that shocks the

life out of RFID tags; now, a privacy advocacy group hopes to sell

devices based on their design.

 

By Jonathan Collins

 

Jan. 23, 2006—German privacy advocacy group FoeBuD plans to

manufacture and sell a device that consumers could used to disable

RFID tags permanently. The gadget—called the RFID-Zapper—was developed

by two students in Berlin, Germany.

 

FoeBuD says it wants to manufacture the RFID-Zapper and sell it at its

online store. The group met with a hardware developer last week, but

says it has no timescale for production or product price yet.

http://www.foebud.org/

 

One of the disposable cameras the team used to make its RFID-Zapper.

The creative minds behind the RFID-Zapper belong to Tim and Chris (the

pair would not divulge their last names), also known, respectively, as

MiniMe and Mahajivana. The young inventors say their motivation was

concern over the potential use of RFID tags on individual items

purchased by consumers. " We read a lot about RFID and its future use

and got worried, " says Mahajivana. " Some easy way of getting rid of

them had to be found. Frying them in the microwave oven wouldn't be an

adequate solution most of the time, as it could damage the

already-purchased item the tag was attached to. But causing the chip

to burn through somehow seemed to be a good idea. "

 

The duo's prototype uses the casing and electronics of a single-use

camera with a flash. Within the next few weeks, the duo claims they

will post online instructions explaining how others can build a copy

of their tag killer for their own use. " Whoever wants to build an

RFID-Zapper is welcome to do so, as long as he's not making any profit

with it, " says Mahajivana.

 

The design replaces the camera's built-in flash with a coil of coated

copper wire. The inventors removed the film and, after disconnecting

the camera's capacitor from the flash, soldered one end of the coil to

the capacitor and the other end to one pole of a switch used to turn

the device on or off. They then connected the switch's remaining pole

to the capacitor's other terminal. Once the camera is reassembled and

held very close to an RFID tag, the duo explains, pressing its shutter

button causes the coil to emit an electromagnetic pulse that will

overload the tag's circuitry and destroy its ability to function.

 

After zapping several tags, MiniMe and Mahajivana used an

RFID-Tag-Finder to test them for signs of life. " It finds passive RFID

tags operating at 13.56 MHz, which are the ones we can zap, " explains

Mahajivana. The inventors built the RFID-Tag-Finder based on details

published in an article appearing on the Web site of C'T, a technology

magazine.

http://www.heise.de/ct/05/02/202/

 

The students first posted their own article about the project on Dec.

27 on the Public Wiki Web site. The site was developed for the 22nd

annual Chaos Communication Congress (22C3), a four-day conference

organized by the Chaos Computer Club (CCC), which bills itself as

Europe's largest hacker group. Since then, the two developers say,

their posted article has had 35,000 hits.

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/wiki/RFID-Zapper(EN)

 

On the Web site, RFID-Zapper's inventors note that users of their

creation should exercise some caution: " Modifying a single-use-camera

into an RFID-Zapper isn't completely free of risks, " they warn. " If

the capacitor is still charged fully or partly, you might catch

yourself an electric shock. We also recommend against using the

RFID-Zapper on RFID-Tags found within electrical devices, for these

are likely to suffer damage, as well. You also shouldn't use

RFID-Zappers too near to electric devices, especially if they are

expensive. You also shouldn't use it near any magnetic data storage,

like floppy disc, MCs, hard discs, credit cards, streamer-cartridges

and so on. And don't try it near your grandpa's pacemaker or other

sensitive medical equipment either! "

 

In the future, the developers say they have ideas about adding other

functions to the RFID-Zapper. " For quite some time, I've been thinking

about some further use of the concept. A combination of a tag-finder

and a tag zapper would be cool, as it would be a design that would

allow small mass production, " says Mahajivana. Given the close

proximity to the tag required for the RFID-Zapper to work, a tag

finder would help determine the location of an RFID tag to zap.

 

Although the RFID-Zapper's design is complete, the duo says they have

thus far been able to test their zapper only on 13.56 MHz tags, as

those have been the only kind they have had access to. They say they

would welcome the chance to test their device on tags operating at

other frequencies, however, and have asked visitors to the RFID-Zapper

Web site to provide the team with such tags.

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2005/wiki/RFID-Zapper(EN)

 

 

 

 

2002 - 2006 RFID Journal, Inc.