Schneier on Security

Clive Robinson • April 25, 2026 11:58 AM

@ Hmm…,

You ask,

“How long before these trackers have no battery, and are powered by the transmitters? What about flexible circuits on fabric?”

What makes you think it’s not already been done?

In actual fact it started back in the late 1980’s and is still very much around now and is ramping up daily…

Look up “Radio Frequency Identity Devices”(RFIDs) especially the long range ones,

‘https://www.cykeorfid.com/long-range-rfid-readers-explained-what-they-are-and-where-theyre-used/

You can scan an entire 40ft Container packed tight with “products” and get the ID of every device via a handheld device. Similarly a 90-100ft range in a semi open area like a warehouse or car-park.

They are routinely in use by the likes of UPS and luxury goods suppliers.

A variation on such devices can be injected into your pet, to be just under the skin to prove it’s vaccination and ownership statuses.

A variation has been made by Medtronic for a decade or more, that records your heart function and uploads it into a bedside device that “phones home” to the hospital cardiac people. Variations that log not just your heart but geographic location and altitude are also available.

For those that don’t like holes being put in them there are devices in watches and belts for “fitness tracking”…

Putting any of the above devices in clothing is trivial and already done with very expensive fashion items and the like to prove they are “genuine not knock-offs” and “stock control”. The fact they can easily track you at store checkouts is being looked into to charge you “premium prices”.

But lets assume that most of your cloths have ID numbers built in how many would be required to,

1, Give you a unique identifier.
2, Be easily linked to your credit card number thus full ID and Bio information?
3, Be easily linked to those you are close to?
4, Establish your shopping and lifestyle habits?
5, Even where you work and live.

And so on…

If you look back on this blog I was worrying about this way more than a decade ago.

I even suggested popping “new clothes in the microwave” for a short period to kill such RFIDs…

Since then “Near Field Communications”(NFCs) have taken off for payment cards of all forms, without you “authenticating” a transaction with a PIN etc.

Many Mobile / Smart devices also have NFC now fitted for a whole heap of reasons,

https://www.spiceworks.com/networking/what-is-near-field-communication/

As do several electronics gizzmos like the “Flipper Zero” security / hacker tool,

https://www.pcmag.com/explainers/flipper-zero-hacks-for-beginners-8-simple-ways-to-use-it-out-of-the-box

NFC Bank Cards, developed in the “naughties” were Originally Called “Tap and Go” cards in some places, really are a security and privacy hazard as they alow you to be not just tracked but have your money stolen with ease.

As I said back in the early RFID days,

“Welcome to your life in the goldfish bowl…”

Clive Robinson • April 25, 2026 5:23 PM

@ Hmm…

You forgot to add to your list of,

“Tech capabilities keep improving… Prices keep dropping…”

And abuse gets cheaper to do…

When I was growing up it was the time where valves/tubes were fading as the transistor had taken over and microchips had gone beyond quad nand-gates.

It looked all creative and wonderful which was why I was not too fussed when it was found I’d developed reactions to oils and certain plastics so moving into boat design and build as a career was not going to be possible… I could after all be just as creative with circuit design…

So in the mid 70’s I jumped career whilst still at college…

However industry had changed and the dark side was coming through… I spent some time doing “defense work” and that was not happy times.

So I jumped into the petro-chem side of things and although design was creative I could see the failings when it came to security. Nobody wanted to pay for it as nobody had attacked their very very vulnerable systems.

Sadly every time I changed career path to “do more good” it was just as things were going bad, but nobody cared to “do good”.

Then it became clear that the old saying of,

“The ship was lost for a ha’pennyworth of tar”

Was the thing the neo-cons either did not understand or did not care about.

Computer hacking and communications attacks just went up and up, and could have been so easily stopped… But “short term thinking” and mantras like “never leave money on the table” caused attacks to rise.

At some point the short term thinking saw profit in getting data on people, and “Data brokering” by “ubiquitous surveillance” became not just a thing, but the only source of profit in town…

For a little extra effort many if not most of the security vulnerabilities that happen every day could be prevented before they leave the shop. But even with new tools that might arise from new methods of AI they won’t be because that is not where management and marketing have set the priorities for profit above all else.

And it’s not going to get better any time soon, if ever.