RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification. An RFID tag consists of a microchip with an antenna. It stores information and can be tracked from external sources. These chips can be as large as a paperback book or small enough to be embedded in the paper of a paperback book's page. Hitachi has the distinction of creating the world's smallest RFID chip at only 0.05 x 0.05 mm. They are used in passport control, the tracking of products, inventories, credit cards, driver's licenses and to track the playing cards used in important poker tournaments. It's assumed that they will one day replace aging barcode technology.
For all intents and purposes, they appear to be highly practical devices, so why would you want to destroy one? The most obvious reason is for purposes distinctly nefarious, including intentional misinformation and malice. Well-intentioned reasons escape me. Nevertheless, as human beings are naturally destructive creatures and take as much pleasure in breaking as in creating, someone has compiled a list of ways detailing just how to go about blocking or killing RFID chips. Thankfully most of them are impractical.
According to boingboing.net, the most dangerous way is to destroy an FRID chip is to microwave it. Microwaving is a well-known method of destroying just about anything. Not for nothing is microwaving food referred to as "nuking". Nuking an RFID tag poses a fire hazard, but it's effective in that both the chip and antenna are completely melted. As methods of destruction go, however, it is rather obvious. Anyone looking at a nuked RFID will be able to tell that it has been tampered with, which means that trying to use it again is impossible, or at least impossibly stupid.
The next two methods are only slightly less overt. If you happen to know exactly where the chip is, you can stab it with a knife, or you can cut the antenna so that the chip can no longer send or receive any signal. Again, the signs of tampering are visible to the human eye, making this impractical for anything other than malicious damage.
The last method given is the simplest, and apparently the most effective. All you need to do is hit it, several times, with a hammer, and any kind of hammer will do. According to the delinquents responsible for this list, hitting an RFID chip with a hammer not only destroys all of the data stored on it, but it does so with no visible side effects.
All of which brings me to a second question: is the information destroyed in any of the above mentioned ways lost forever or can it be retrieved?
Say for instance you accidentally microwaved your credit card (possible, if not probable) and melted the RFID chip, would you be able to take it to a specialist and get it fixed? In the case of the almighty nuke machine, I would think that your chances are pretty slim. In the case of accidental stabbing, cutting or hammering, I would venture that the odds are somewhat greater. Better to play it safe, however, and keep all credit cards far away from anything sharp, heavy and flammable.
Recommended sites:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/25/howto-killblock-an-r.html
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=939
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID
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