Patent ID: 8359480
Filing Date: 2013-01-22
Classification: G06K,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for securely identifying and authenticating radio frequency identification (RFID) tags while maintaining privacy, comprising steps of: (a) providing each RFID tag with an internal counter, a unique pseudonym, and a secret key, and creating a database in which the RFID tags are identified; (b) generating a random nonce and conveying the random nonce to an RFID tag that is to be identified; (c) at the RFID tag to be identified, computing: (d) conveying the first hash value and the second hash value to a reader; (e) accessing the database to attempt to identify the RFID tag that is to be identified as a function of the first hash value conveyed to the reader, the database associating the unique pseudonym, the secret key, and a new unique pseudonym for the RFID tag that is to be identified with the first hash value; and (f) if successful in identifying the RFID tag that is to be identified, authenticating that the RFID tag for which the first and the second hash values were computed is the RFID tag that was identified in the database, by using the second hash value to confirm that the RFID tag that is to be identified had the secret key that was stored in the database for the RFID tag that was identified.