(Yet Another Bad Idea)
From Engadget: Brits to get RFID-chipped license plates
The UK Department for Transport just gave the go-ahead for a trial of new, RFID-enabled license plates aimed to make vehicles trackable in Britain.
OK as a card-carrying geek, I like technical solutions but I’m not sure what problem they’re trying to solve.
Unlike passive RFID which only transmits over short distances, the e-Plate licenses use active RFID technology to transmit vehicle identification numbers and other data to readers over 300 feet away.
Fair enough VIN numbers, but what’s the “other data”? What else is needed? And what’s with the “active RFID” and transmitting “over 300 feet away”?
I’m sure the appropriate enforcing legislation will be pushed through under the guise of preventing terrorism, and I can see how they think it can be used for tracking vehicles, tackling speeding and replacing/supplement road tax but unless it’s married to some sort of enforcement/verification system it will be useless as people will either disable them, or clone someone elses. Then there’s the part that RFID is essentially open if you have the right tools – if the government can track you, so can others.
So, technically a sound idea (but obviously not well thought through), guaranteed to be badly implemented (as all initiatives like this are), and we’ll most likely have to foot the bill.
The difference between active and passive RFID is that active RFID isn’t necessarily trivial to clone; passive RFID uses very low-power electronics and hence can’t do anything complicated, but active RFID uses the same communication spec with powered electronics, meaning that things like digital signatures are possible.
This means that you can distribute numberplates with VIN etc., signed by a central key, and verify that signature remotely. Assuming that no crims can get their hands on a key (or get arbitrary data signed by the key) then the system should be secure.