Hacking Truckers

June 25, 2007

JUNE 25, 2007 | Now even truckers will need to worry about RFID security: Researchers say they have discovered that they can scan and hack electronic product code (EPC) labels on products being transported on 18-wheeler tractor-trailers.
Researchers at PacketFocus Security Solutions , with the help of researchers at Atlas RFID Solutions, so far have been able to easily read EPC codes using standard EPC Generation 2 readers and antennas, says Joshua Perrymon, hacking director for PacketFocus Security Solutions. The firm recently rented an 18-wheeler from a local freight company and loaded it with EPC-tagged boxes to test out just what data can be intercepted from the big rigs. "We wanted to determine what information we could glean from outside the truck," Perrymon says.
It's a supply chain nightmare. Perrymon says he and his colleagues didn't have to do much more than run the off-the-shelf tools. "We are showing you can do this with off-the-shelf products, and you don't have to be a super-hacker" to get EPC data off a tractor-trailer, he says.
EPC, the heir apparent to the bar code, provides unique tags for each item, rather than just the vendor and class of product as bar codes do. That makes inventory and shipment-tracking more efficient, of course, but also opens the door for attackers to lift detailed information about what a particular truck is hauling and where, as well as to actually hack the EPC codes via an EPC writer, Perrymon says.

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