Terminate RFID Tags

This gun hunts only RFID tags.[mnt], who brought us laser gesture control, built this RFID Zapper but included so much more. Any good weapon has to sound mean, a feat he’s accomplished by incorporating an MP3 player into the rifle. The coil that zaps the RFID tag is powered by a photo-flash unit, but for visual feedback he’s got a second unit that flashes light to signal the demise of your German passport (see the video after the break).

It’s hard to believe we haven’t covered RFID Zappers yet. The concept came out of the Chaos Communication Congress a few years back. This method works by sending a very strong electromagnetic field through the RFID tag that causes it to burn out. There’s a wiki post on RFID Zappers but Firefox threw a certificate warning when we loaded it up; read at your own risk.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wApnKraftWo]

49 thoughts on “Terminate RFID Tags

  1. Ok, its a neat and fun project but it certainly does lack subtlety – with that close of a range subtlety would be a requirement. Trying to use that in the claimed “rfid warfare” would yield a fat lip at best and permanent bannination at worst.

    Nonetheless it is a cool implementation; I think claiming “rfid warfare” is a bit of a stretch though. Built into a subtle briefcase and spending time in a heavy rfid zone (corporate campus) could be interesting ;)

  2. Seems nice (I love the screen), but is definitively too big.

    @Vonskippy: Barcodes can’t be read from inside your pocket or wallet. With RFID there’s a *small chance* someone could.
    But we don’t really need excuses to hack something up, do we?

    Btw,
    “Firefox threw a certificate warning when we loaded it up; read at your own risk.”

    Accessing websites with bad certificates isn’t any more dangerous than accessing normal, non-encrypted sites.

  3. Heh, too bad phased arrays for RFID are rather big, so no directional weapons for now (refresh my memory but there are RFIDs that operate in GHz range, right ?)
    On other hand its rather easy to make them zap-proof – just add transils, varistors and zeners to the mix, but after all add more power zapper-wise and something WILL burn.

  4. Really smart, frying a goverment issued document.

    thats gonna cost a few euro’s to replace when hes travelling :’)

    nice project but i’d rather see a rfid shield of some sorts

    @icebrain mindlessly destroying stuff isn’t hacking

  5. While this is theatrical, this kind of device can fry RFID tags that microwaves can’t. For instance the RFID tags that sit inside mine and everyone else’s tires (USA). I can’t easily take my tires off and nuke them for a few seconds. So this has added functionality that your kitchen appliance doesn’t. Currently those are the only tags in my house that I cannot shield (of all tags that I am aware of).

  6. this will be a *must have* in the future when “The Man” tags every living human being with rfid tags without their knowledge!
    I read somewhere that this is a plan that can be accomplished only by introducing a mass hysteria among a nation with new types of flu and by using special preset syringes+needles containing an RFID chip. Possible, very possible indeed…

  7. @markii: I injected myself with the swine flu vaccine. There was nothing special about the serum or the seringe.

    (why did I inject myself? The place was overwhelmed and the doc knew me so he just gave me a seringe and a dose of vaccine. I went to a side at the medical center, disinfected, raised my sleeve, prepped the seringe, prepped the shot and injected myself)

  8. Since you only want the body and flash unit, go see your friendly local photo processor for a bunch of free cameras. I don’t buy AA batteries any more either.

    The original was built into a rather less obvious disposable camera body, but even cameras are now “sus”, and the guts of the flash is small enough to make a much smaller unit.

    One way to bump up the oomph would be to add more caps in parallel from other cameras and/or stack up several flash units in series for some really scary voltage and impulse current capacity. A big dump SCR might be an idea if you don’t want the button to weld closed.

    Fair warning; about 20% of the cameras I have ratted still have a major charge on the cap, *days* after they were last used. It may not kill you but you sure know you’ve been bit.

    Apart from not fitting inside, another reason not to try microwaving tires is that they are about 90% carbon and contain wound wire belts and beads.

  9. AFIK There are very few RFID chips one would want to destroy Destroying those in a passport, drivers license may render needed documents effectively useless. Livestock RFID chips are another matter. I live in cattle country and haven’t yet heard of any required chipping of cattle being forced on producers. Anyway wouldn’t a “tin hat” for passports, drivers licenses, credit cards, etc, be the simplest solution, if unathorized reading is a concern? While I understand it’s used to justify destruction on so many levels “destruction is the root of construction” is so lame.

  10. Went to get my dog today.From the pound as she got out.Somebody picked her up 3 days ago.When i went to claim her I id the dog.So I thought they were going to bring her around the counter and give her to me.NO they were n the back implanting this chip.Without my knowing.Then went on to charge me 45 bucks for it.

  11. I just wanted to point something out. If this device was minimized to a smaller portable package, people could easily steal clothes without setting off the alarm.

    That is if no one notices.

  12. Well… no, you cant read a rfid passport inside your wallet.
    First you have to open it, scan the number inside (or type it in manually) and with that number generate the key to acces the rfid chip.

  13. Goja,
    There are still many RFID tags which are not well encrypted, or that can be decrypted with out having physical access. I’m pretty sure I read an article about it over a year a go and watched a video that had been posted here in the spring this year.

  14. All you need is a portable emp.

    They are illegal in the united states of course.

    The united states has more laws than any other country in the world.

    Ironic isnt it.
    The one country that is supposed to be the land of the free.

    is now a full blown police state.
    All human activity is now recorded.

    People are all being herded into highly compact prison like cities so the enforcement agents can prey on you.

    The entire judiciary is now preying on the host population.

    When a cop pulls you over, they have more than 10,000 laws they can use against you.

    this is a total tyranny.

    the most important think I can tell you is the following, and I am not joking.

    there is no voting system
    there is no democracy
    The president works for the federal reserve system, which is not part of our government.

    They want all of your guns
    they want to forcibly vaccinate all you you.
    your children are being taught to commit suicide

    everything is parasitic

    I have counted 27 leaders in the last 1 year calling for WORLD GOVERNMENT

    wake up. your all being lied to.

  15. Well to the comments of the rfid chip size they are now produced to such a small size that a small vile contains 100,000? of them…see article in popular science I believe about 3-6 months ago showing new production by Japanese company of micro rfid’s…they looked like glitter in a bottle.

    My understanding of Rfid coding is that it only contains a code number, though driver licenses etc contain more info, that is scanned fore and used to access a master database of information related to that code number.

    Not that I believe in the injection scenario, but the Bible does indicate one world goverment is coming along with the antichrist which will require a mark on the hand or forehead to buy or sell, and anyone who takes the mark will eventually, after the judgment, be thrown into the lake of fire by Gods holy angels.

    My suggestion is to Trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior today, Rom 3:23, Rom 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-10 and read the middle to end of the Gospels to see what the signs of Jesus Christs return and Revelation to see the summation at the end of time start after chapter 3.

  16. I recognize that these other methods lack the flash and certainly the style of the RFID Killer, but will a strong magnet Not work?
    What if, say, you took your rfid-chipped object to a Walmart checkout (or other preferred retail establishment) and comandeered their de-chipifyer ? {the sophistication just grows, I know}.

    I’m just very confused about the nuts and bolts of the operation: the camera parts are doing something else, it’s not just a flash of light, right {this would be the style part, not the substance, yes?}

    Like I said, I know other methods would invariably lack the style & grace of the RFID Killer, but I think it’s clear that I’m not going to be able to manage style nor grace anytime soon : }

    Is there anything already out there, short of an EMP blast, that also disables these without burn marks?

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