RFID virus is 'hyped up'

Mark Gasson, a senior research fellow working at the University of Reading’s ‘infected’ himself with a computer virus by implanting an RFID chip into his hand.??

Sophos experts claim that while it is possible to put any software code onto an RFID chip, the code would not be read until an RFID reader came into contact with the affected RFID chip. Furthermore, the software connected with the RFID reader itself would need to have a security vulnerability in order to allow the malicious code to be run.?? Nevertheless, Dr Gasson has claimed that in the future that pacemakers and deep brain stimulators could be infected by other devices.??

“Scientists should be responsible in how they present their research, rather than hyping up threats in order to get headlines,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Any virus code on the RFID chip would be utterly incapable of running unless a serious security hole existed in the external device reading it. RFID chips normally just have data read from them, rather than ‘executed’, so the chances of a virus infection spreading in this fashion is extremely remote. Frankly, I’ve got more chance of being flattened by a falling grand piano than I have of getting my dog infected by a PC virus next time I take him to the vets.”??