Working Method and Security Considerations of RFID and NFC

This article discusses the working method of RFID and NFC technologies and their security considerations. It also highlights the challenges of implementing these technologies due to their cost and working problems with metals and liquids.

Running head: WIRELESS NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES
Wireless Networking Technologies
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Working Method of RFID and NFC:
The RFID is a digital technology stand for radio-frequency identification (Liu et al.,
2016). This technology is mainly used for the verification purpose which is similar to NFC
but used for different purpose. The RFID system is able to identify objectives automatically,
can collect the data about the identified object and can store this data to the database without
any type of human interaction (Oliveira et al., 2015). To identify the objectives the RFID uses
the radio waves same as the NFC. A basic RFID device consists of three parts which are
RFID tag, RFID reader and an antenna. The RFID tag consists of an antenna and an
integrated circuit. This RFID tag transmits a radio signal to the RFID reader, then the
transmitted signals converted into another form of data which is analysed in a computer
system for the verification purpose.
The NFC is another way of communication which stands for Near Field
Communication. This is basically a short range communication method which wirelessly
communicates through the radio waves. This NFC uses electromagnetic induction for the
communication which is an older method of communication used in the RFID (Hu et al.,
2018). For this type of communication, the devices may need to adhere. The NFC has total
three type of operation method for the communication. The first is peer-to-peer, the second
one is the read and writes mode and the third one is the card emulation. The peer-to-peer
operation is mostly used in the smartphone for the exchanging random information. The read
and write operation is one-way remission of data used for reading the data form other
devices. The NFC device can be used as a credit card which is contactless for making
payment in the case of card emulation operation. RFID and NFC both are used for
communicating with other devices but the purpose of the communication is different while

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the RFID uses modern technology for communication the NFC uses the old RFID
communication method.
Security consideration and challenges of the RFID and NFC:
The RFID and the NFC have some security-related concerns. It is natural that both the
devices will face similar kind of issues as both the technology uses the same radio wave
communication method. A common security issue for the communication technology is the
eavesdropping issue. This issue occurs when a third party which can be an attacker or can be
a hacker intercepts the transmitted signals of the RFID or the NFC devices (Zou & Wang,
2016). By intercepting the transmitted signal the hacker can easily get access to the
information of the transmitted data which can contain the credit card numbers, transaction
details and some confidential information (Tugnait, 2016). In this case, both the
communication technology struggles to ensure the security of the users.
The main challenge regarding the implementation of the RFID and NFC technology is
the cost of these devices (Akbari et al., 2016). The whole RFID setup costs a lot for the
normal users. Also, the NFC enabled smartphones are more costly compared to a non-NFC
enabled device. For this, the cost of the devices become a major challenge for implementing
these technologies. With the cost, another major challenge of the NFC and RFID device is the
working problem due to the metals and liquid. While the liquid and metal are a common
thing in the daily life of humans it becomes a challenge to implementing these technologies.

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