Security News > 2021 > September > Military’s RFID Tracking of Guns May Endanger Troops

Reports that the military has started outfitting firearms with RFID tags for tracking have raised security alarms.

The Department of Defense, the Marines and the Navy have already rejected the RFID tagging tech for that specific reason, according to the AP. However, five Air Force bases are operating at least one RFID armory, along with a Florida-based Green Beret unit that uses RFID in what officials said were a "Few" armories.

Security experts who talked to the AP said the tags would be detectable up to a much farther distance than advertised, meaning adversaries could track troop movements, make fake RFID tags and more.

"Self-powered RFID tags [that] have a battery and beacon out with their own signals can be read much further away since it all comes down to the reader's sensitivity and directionality," Beardsley added.

"With the right equipment. you could read an active RFID tag from a couple of hundred meters away without much problem."

"In other words, some RFID tags can be read from much longer distances than the manufacturer intends, while other RFID tags cannot be read from distances over a few meters, tops, no matter how much power you're putting behind the reader," Beardsley explained.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/military-rfid-track-guns-endanger-troops/175260/