The How and Why of RAIN RFID Cryptographic Authentication

The problem of counterfeit products is global, and it’s growing. Knockoff handbags, athletic shoes, wristwatches, and pharmaceuticals cost businesses and consumers billions of dollars every year globally.

Now, there’s a new way brands can fight fakes: RAIN RFID cryptographic authentication.

The Impinj Authenticity™ solution engine brings enterprise-scale product authentication to new and existing RAIN RFID deployments.

What is Product Authentication?

At its heart, authenticating something is largely straightforward: You want to conclusively establish the item as genuine and determine its owner or origin. Doing that can get complex.

Product authentication solutions built on the Impinj platform employ secure cryptography, using a challenge-response protocol to determine with a high degree of certainty whether an item is genuine.

RAIN RFID from Impinj

An item tagged with RAIN RFID has certain information associated with it—data such as the manufacturer name, model number, serial number, date of manufacture, purchase date, customer name, and more. That item-specific data can be stored in a product cloud.

When that item is read at any point in the supply chain by a RAIN RFID reader, an Impinj-based authentication solution cross-checks and confirms the information stored in the product cloud and verifies the tag’s authenticity using the Impinj Authentication Service.

Impinj Authenticity uses cryptographic authentication, a feature of the new RFID tag chips, to swiftly and automatically verify tagged products as genuine.

Implement RAIN RFID with a Trusted Partner

For an in-depth explanation of how Impinj Authenticity works, contact Barcodes, Inc. to learn more about RAIN RFID.