Researcher showcases his virus infected RFID implant

According to a report on BBC News, Dr Mark Gasson, a senior research fellow working at the university’s Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, implanted an RFID chip containing what he claimed to be virus code into his hand.

“Scientists should be responsible in how they present their research, rather than hyping up threats in order to get headlines,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. “Any virus code on the RFID chip would be utterly incapable of running unless a serious security hole existed in the external device reading it.  RFID chips normally just have data read from them, rather than ‘executed’, so the chances of a virus infection spreading in this fashion is extremely remote.  Frankly, I’ve got more chance of being flattened by a falling grand piano than I have of getting my dog infected by a PC virus next time I take him to the vets.”