High security RFID component provides anti counterfeiting solution
1 min read
A high security ISO/IEC15693 compliant device from EM Microelectronic is said to act as a universal identity card and as an encrypted tamperproof digital certificate to convey the guarantee of good quality. The developer says the part offers 'unequalled' RF performance while enabling efficient and secure solutions for anti counterfeiting and brand protection
Called the EM4237, the uses public stream cipher technology to safeguard data integrity and to ensure confidential communication between the IC and the reader.
After a successful mutual authentication process, data communication can optionally be encrypted and the data integrity can optionally be protected by a 4byte MAC. The company adds the EM4237 is the first ISO/IEC15693 compliant device to offer the same security mechanisms as those used in ISO/IEC14443 applications, but at long range.
Each EM4237 device contains a unique 64bit identifier and an optional 32byte ECC based digital certificate. A secure application running on an NFC enabled smartphone can read these two pieces of information, connect to a server through the cloud, manage the collected data and confirm authenticity. The 32byte digital signature is calculated using the device's unique 64bit ID number, a public and a secret key.
A privacy mode allows the device to not respond to any received commands from an RFID reader or to return a random UID number that will be used during the next transaction.
