December 10, 2015

Swedish Workers Volunteer to Get RFID Implants

Office complex implants RFID chips in employees' hands

RFID chip on hand
An RFID chip like this one is being implanted in the hands of Swedish office workers to enable access through security doors and to even pay for lunch in the cafeteria.

February 6, 2015

Computerworld  - The corporate tenants of a Swedish high-tech office complex are having RFID chips implanted in their hands, enabling access through security doors, as well as services such as copy machines, all without PIN codes or swipe cards.

The employees working at Epicenter, a 15,000-square-foot building in Stockholm, can even pay for lunch using their implants -- just as they would with the swipe of a credit card.

The owners of Epicenter say they want the facility to be a "magnet for fast growing digital companies and cutting-edge creative corporate initiatives."
"The fact that some people at the Epicenter office have chosen to replace their key fobs with NFC implants is their own personal choice," said Hannes Sjöblad, founder of Bionyfiken, a Swedish association of Biohackers. "It's a small, but indeed fast-growing, fraction which has chosen to try it out."
Sjöblad said there are also several other offices, companies, gyms and education institutions in Stockholm where people access the facilities with implanted RFID/NFC chips (near field communication). 
Editor's Note: NFC works to identify us by our enabled cards and devices (and by extension, our bank accounts and other personal info). NFC chips are inside credit cards and smartphones. Contactless payments can be made via your phone's NFC chip. Virtually every mobile OS maker has their own apps that offer unique NFC functionality. Android users have the widest variety to choose from, including Google Wallet and Samsung Pay, which accesses your funds for contactless payments. Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus received NFC functionality with Apple Pay. It's a lot like Google Wallet, in that it's an app which gives users the ability to pay for goods and services at participating retailers. Those who prefer Microsoft's Windows Phone can use Microsoft Payments. Looking toward the future, it's possible that NFC chips could be used to replace every card in our wallets. That means the unique info on our frequent-shopper loyalty cards, library cards, business cards and the like could be contained and transmitted simply via NFC.
microchip rfid rice The RFID/NFC implants are a bit larger than a grain of rice, and Sjöblad's group tested the chips last year. Bionyfiken has just launched a nationwide study on RFIC/NFC implants.

The goal of the Bionyfiken project is to create a user community of at least 100 people with NFC implants who experiment with and help develop possible uses.

For example, applications could expand beyond access and include employee ID and location tracking.

Participants in the Bionyfiken project normally pay for their own implants. There are even "implant parties," that involve from eight to 15 "implantees" and a bit of socializing around the experience.

BioNyfiken is also working to change public perception and educate people on the idea that subdermal implants are not only harmless but, in fact, useful in everyday life.


The fast-growing Bionyfiken RFID implant community is made up by a diverse group of people who see "experimenting with technology as a natural way of life," the organization's webpage states.
"The chips are easy to insert and just as easy to remove. The life length of a chip implant is long. I expect mine to last for 10-plus years, but likely I will want a newer model before that time," Sjöblad said.
Sjöblad believes getting an RFID implant is a highly personal choice "as it relates to individual integrity, which both I and my fellow Swedes consider highly important."
"However, I fundamentally believe that smart implants are a technology of the future," he added.
Not everyone is convinced inserting radio-transmitting chips with user ID information under your skin is a good idea.

John Kindervag, a principal security and privacy analyst at Forrester Research, said RFID implants are simply "scary" and pose a major threat to privacy and security.

While RFID/NFC chips, whether implanted or carried in a fob, are passive and not activated until they come within inches of an electronic reader, that reader can be hacked by impersonating another person's RFID chip to gain sensitive data.

Additionally, nefarious thieves can also set up readers in inconspicuous places (such as retail stores) to activate RFID/NFC chips, stealing access to the same information.

The difference between implants and popular mobile payment technologies, such as Apple Pay, is that an NFC implant would not typically be shielded.

External RFID chips, contained in smart phones, fobs or cards, can be placed in sleeves or protective wallets that block the NFC signals until they're ready for use, Kindervag said.

Sjöblad, however, said implants have the potential to greatly increase efficiency and simplify mundane tasks. RFID chips are already used as car keys and membership cards, as well as be used as passwords and pin codes for logging into smartphones, tablets and computers.
"But this is really just a beginning. I believe it will be possible to use them for riding public transport within a year or two. 
I believe it will be possible to facilitate payments with implants within two years," Sjöblad said. "I believe they will have the capacity to replace fitness trackers within 3 years. 
And that, indeed, is still just the beginning."
RFID chips could also be used to control activity, Kindervag warned. For example, if a fob is used to enable a vehicle's ignition, a driver who is late with a car payment could have that device disabled by the bank.
"I think it's pretty scary that people would want to do that [implant chips]," Kindervag said. "That's a frightening apocalyptic vision, for sure." 
NBC Prediction That We Will All Have an RFID Chip Under Our Skin by 2017:


NFC chip implants: First Apple, now this guy

On the heels of Apple's NFC-enabled iPhone 6 and 6 Plus comes... a man's tale of implanting an NFC chip in his hand. 

October 21, 2014

Network World - It's hard to steal Apple's thunder on anything these days, but a self-professed "body modification" enthusiast might have done just that: He's had an NFC chip implanted in his hand.

Apple's near field communications (NFC) chip in its new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones pales by comparison, no? Those phone chips lay the groundwork for the new Apple Pay mobile payments technology made available with the arrival of iOS 8.1 this week.

(NFC is a wireless communications technology that operates in the 13.56Mhz frequency and can support two-way interactions.)

Robert J. Nelson isn't the first guy to have a chip implanted, but the timing of his story is interesting in light of the Apple NFC news. Nelson shares his tale on the mobile devices website Connectedly, and sorry Apple, but he's using the chip implanted between his left thumb and forefinger to secure his Moto X Android phone.

Google and others have been supporting NFC in their technologies for years now.

Nelson says he paid $99 for a chipset from the Dangerous Things biohacking gadgets website. The implantation was simple and pretty painless, despite the big needle, once he found someone to do it. His post on Connectedly includes lots of juicy photos.

Some might question whether having a chip implanted enhances or invades your privacy. John Halamka, a noted healthcare CIO in the Boston area who had an RFID chip containing his medical records implanted in his right shoulder 10 years ago, wrote several years later that he wasn't necessarily an advocate for such implants, other than for those who might really benefit from having medical records on them at all times (say Alzheimer patients).

To simplify things, you might consider going with NFC-enabled gloves for starters.

Hidden RFID Tags in your Everyday Life:


Telenor, Bus Company Run NFC-enabled Mobile Phone Pilot in Norway
 
In the fall of 2008, Telenor Research and Innovation, the research and development division of telecommunications company Telenor Group, teamed with Cominor, the local bus company in Tromsoe, Norway, to test an NFC-enabled payment system. Approximately 30 participants used NFC-enabled mobile phones provided to them during the trial, which lasted for about four weeks. The system leveraged Mifare DESFire, a high-security contactless card technology from NXP Semiconductors. The trial's goal was to determine whether consumers would like to use their mobile phones to make payments, said research scientist Erlend Pedersen, project manager for Telenor's development work, in a prepared statement. "We want to give our customers a faster service and a more flexible change-over between various means of transportation," added Thor-Harald Lauritsen, head of Cominor's ticketing systems and manager of the NFC pilot. 

NFC/RFID

In the case of NFC and RFID, two very similar technologies with varying uses and range of smart tag reading/writing capabilities, security problems are a well-known risk, though not quite yet in mobile devices. However, the possibility exists that the NFC and RFID technologies found in mobile devices can be attacked for data theft purposes. This is especially as we have already seen a high-risk Android app hacking into RFID payment cards. “Using widely available tools, the attacker cracked the card’s authentication key. With the cracked key and the native NFC support in Android and the device, cloning a card and adding credits can be easily implemented in a mobile app,” writes Trend Micro mobile threats analyst Veo Zhang in a blog post. In addition, three other kinds of MIFARE-based smart cards, a social security card with banking service, a payment card for transportation and shopping, and a dining card, were previously known to be vulnerable to attackers. If this family of chips widely used in contactless smart cards and proximity cards was already compromised, chances are that cybercriminals are working on how to attack NFC and RFID technologies in mobile devices as well.

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