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International Conference on Financial Cryptography

FC 2003: Financial Cryptography pp 103–121Cite as

Squealing Euros: Privacy Protection in RFID-Enabled Banknotes

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2742))

Abstract

Thanks to their broad international acceptance and availability in high denominations, there is widespread concern that Euro banknotes may provide an attractive new currency for criminal transactions. With this in mind, the European Central Bank has proposed to embed small, radio-frequency-emitting identification (RFID) tags in Euro banknotes by 2005 as a tracking mechanism for law enforcement agencies. The ECB has not disclosed technical details regarding its plan. In this paper, we explore some of the risks to individual privacy that RFID tags embedded in currency may pose if improperly deployed. Acknowledging the severe resource constraints of these tags, we propose a simple and practical system that provides a high degree of privacy assurance. Our scheme involves only elementary cryptography. Its effectiveness depends on a careful separation of the privileges offered by optical vs. radio-frequency contact with banknotes, and full exploitation of the limited access-control capabilities of RFID tags.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. RSA Laboratories, Bedford, MA, 01730, USA

    Ari Juels

  2. ThingMagic, LLC, USA

    Ravikanth Pappu

Authors
  1. Ari Juels
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  2. Ravikanth Pappu
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and DIMACS, Rutgers University, 08854, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Rebecca N. Wright

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© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Juels, A., Pappu, R. (2003). Squealing Euros: Privacy Protection in RFID-Enabled Banknotes. In: Wright, R.N. (eds) Financial Cryptography. FC 2003. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2742. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45126-6_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45126-6_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-40663-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-45126-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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