October 12, 2005
RFID security with Columbitech
The wireless VPNs and software development kits developed by Columbitech will now feature RFID to improve supply chain security. Other vendors providing similar support include Shipcom Wireless Inc., Defywire.com, Sybase Inc., etc.
The U.S Army and Navy, retail chains, etc are clients of Columbitech. The security of Columbitech WVPNs has been enhanced so that data from the RFID tags can be collected in a secure manner. Readers manufactured by any vendor can be used with the Columbitech WVPNs subject to certification for compliance and interoperability. The WVPNs work with a session-based approach instead of an IP-based one. This helps in an improved management of the flow-control and recovery. The WVPN is capable of functioning even in the event of a TCP breakdown as it is placed above the transport layer of the application stack. This allows the transport proxy mechanisms at the VPN server to be used when the radio coverage is down.
Wireless TLS (WTLS) is used for the creation of an encrypted tunnel between the WVPN server and client. The TLS, which is an improved version of SSL 3.0, defines the protocols for signing, encryption, and hashing. For the symmetric encryption of payload data, DES (56-bit), 3DES (112-bit) and AES (up to 256-bit) are used. Asymmetric encryption is achieved using RSA (up to 15,360-bit). The integrity of the data is validated by using either MD5 (128-bit) or SHA (up to 512-bit).
X.509 or WTLS client certificates and X.509 or WTLS client certificates are some of the mechanisms that can be used for authentication to the WVPN server. The WVPN server is kept secluded from the Internet by means of a firewall. The creation and distribution of digital certificates is managed by a certificate manager and a wireless PKI portal.
--
Did you enjoy this post?
« ConnecTerra | Main | RFID and traditional sensor technology »
