ABI Research Response

I contacted the authors of the ABI Research Article mentioned in the previous post. Both Mr. Collins and Mr. Liard graciously accepted my LinkedIn invitation, and I used the messaging system to send them both a message. Here is a what I wrote:

Your recent paper titled "Developing a Corporate Plan for RFID Adoption: Enterprise RFID Blueprint and Program Management Considerations" fails to address security issues surrounding RFID. Was this intentional. We discussed this at the RFID Security Alliance, and find it a bit alarming that ABI Research, a trusted research firm, is failing to address this. Can you please expain?

Both Mr. Collins and Mr. Liard replied. Mr. Collins told me he would forward my inquiry to Mr. Liard, and Mr. Liard sent me this response:

Thanks for your interest and comments, Mike. The ABI Research RFID & Contactless team appreciates your feedback. The reason that security was not mentioned explicitly in the article is simply because it was a short, focused piece and the focus was not security. As a security specialist we can understand how you would be eager for the topic to be explicitly included as often as possible. Security is of course an important aspect of any RFID deployment and ABI Research often has highlighted issues and strategies with regard to implementing security-conscious RFID applications for many years and in many pieces of research. We are sure you will agree that to dismiss those efforts on the basis of that a single article is a bit unjust given the original intent of the piece: for users to consider value propositions and understand that RFID deployment plans must be structured to appreciate both the business process and technology change. The onus of educating enterprise end users on current and potential security considerations is not the lone responsibility of each item of research published nor of any single group or player in the RFID space, but rather, through combined messaging and commitment from all parties in the value chain. We continue to engage with and monitor companies specializing in RFID data and system security and will consider sharing more of our thoughts on RFID security in the public domain in the future.

Regards,
Michael J. Liard
Research Director
RFID & Contactless
ABI Research

I wish to sincerely thank both Mr. Collins and Mr. Liard for their replies.