Patent ID: 8116454

Claim:
A radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, comprising: a receiver configured to receive wireless communications including an authentication request, the authentication request including a first digital certificate, a transient public key, a random number, and a list identifying at least one authentication technique; and a memory, the memory storing a firmware module, the firmware module including a security shim, the security shim being configured to: select an authentication technique from the list identifying at least one authentication technique; determine whether the first digital certificate is in a trust relationship with a second digital certificate that is different from said first digital certificate and that is stored in the memory; generate a second random number; and encrypt, using the public key, said second random number and an authentication identification identifying the selected authentication technique; and a transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit an authentication response, the authentication response including the encrypted second random number, the encrypted authentication identification, and entity information that includes a unique identification of said RFID tag.