Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags embedded in objects will become the standard way to identify objects to provide the link between the physical and cyber worlds. However, it is easy to clone RFID tags by copying the contents of the memory to a new tag to create a counterfeit tag that can be attached to a counterfeit product. In addition, RFID tags are vulnerable to side-channel attacks in which external parameters such as power consumption and timing delays are measured to calculate the desired information. The objective of this research is to prevent counterfeiting of RFID tags by offering mitigating techniques that provide different levels of protection and have different requirements in cost and implementation complexity in order to provide appropriately secure and flexible solutions for different applications. This research is developing methods for creating and verifying a physical fingerprint specific to an individual RFID tag based on the physical characteristics of the tag such as power sensitivity frequency response, transient timing response, and clock skew that are caused by manufacturing differences in the components and packaging. In addition, the project is researching techniques for permanently altering the physical fingerprint of a RFID tag to transfer ownership of an object from one individual to another. Finally, digital integrated circuit (IC) design methodology that mitigates power- and timing-based side-channel attacks by using dual-spacer asynchronous logic is being researched. The anticipated results of this high-risk and high-payoff area of research are cost-effective and reliable anti-counterfeiting techniques to prevent cloning of RFID tags.
