NFC — Vulnerabilities and defense

Near Field Communication (NFC) has been in use for quite some time by many users in mobile devices. Its use is increasing by the rapid increase in the availability of the NFC enabled devices in the market. It enables data transfer by bringing the two devices in close proximity, about 3-5 inches. It is designed for integration with mobile phones, which can communicate with other phones (peer-to-peer) or read information on tags and cards (reader). An NFC device can also be put in card emulation mode, to offer compatibility with other contactless smart card standards. This enables NFC enabled smart-phones to replace traditional contactless plastic cards used in public transport ticketing, access control, ATMs and other similar applications. NFC is a new and innovative technology with futuristic uses, but technology comes at a price both in terms of financial effects as well as the maintenance costs. The most pertinent concern would be that how much vulnerable the new technology is. There had already been instances where the security of NFC has been put to questions. It is vulnerable to numerous kinds of attacks. This research paper will list down the basic working principles of NFC, the protocols involved, vulnerabilities reported so far and possible countermeasures against the weaknesses.