Patent ID: 7791451

Claim:
A method for providing mutual authentication for radio frequency identification (RFID) security, the method comprising: receiving an authentication request at a RFID tag from a requestor, the request including an encrypted access role; transmitting an encrypted secret message to the requestor in response to receiving the authentication request, the encrypted secret message responsive to the encrypted access role; receiving an access request at the RFID tag from the requestor, the access request generated by the requestor in response to the RFID tag being successfully authenticated by the requestor using the encrypted secret message, and the access request specifying a work area and including a random number that is encrypted; authenticating the requester at the RFID tag including determining the value of the random number sent by the requestor and verifying that the work area is valid for the encrypted access role; and responding to the access request using the value of the random number as an encryption key in response to the requestor being successfully authenticated at the RFID tag, wherein the RFID tag responds to simultaneous accesses by the requester and one or more other requesters.