While high-end events are quite rewarding, they present organizers with unique logistical needs that require careful planning and meticulous execution. These events, including international summits, technology conferences, and political rallies, demand that you provide security to VIPs and even protect their intellectual property.
In such a demanding environment, traditional access cards and regular RFID chips will not suffice. Instead, you will need MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges. We explain how these chips transform a simple identification card into a cryptographic fortress.
Reasons Why MIFARE DESFire EV3 Badges Are the Best for High-Security Events
Here are the four primary reasons why high-security events exclusively choose MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges.
1. Military-Grade Cryptography and Clone Prevention
The main weakness of previous generation’s RFID badge cards was the possibility of cloning. An attacker could use a device that costs just several dollars to read the UID of the card in just a few seconds from several inches away. This information could then be transferred onto another card, allowing an unauthorized person to gain entry to the event.
MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges completely eliminate this threat.
They use state-of-the-art hardware cryptographic engines that support Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128 and AES-256) algorithms. They also support modern triple-DES (3DES) engineering patterns. The EV3 badge is not just transmitting its identifier to the secure reader when it gets close enough to it.
On the contrary, the badge and the reader establish a complicated and multistage mutual authentication process. It needs to prove that it has the secret key required for encrypting the transmission.
And since such keys are stored in a secure area in the chip silicon core, the hacker won’t be able to steal them. The information in the radio wave will be fully encrypted and thus unusable.
2. Hardware-Level Proximity and Relay Attack Defense
The hackers in a highly secured place do not always attempt to decrypt the encryption keys. They deploy an advanced technique that is known as relay attack, which is also referred to as a MitM attack.
In this case, the hacker will be positioned outside the venue near the authorized executive and will read a guest’s badge through the long-range antenna. This antenna relays the signal via cellular data to a second accomplice standing at a restricted entrance door inside the venue. The second accomplice holds a device that mimics the executive’s card. The door reader sees a valid signal and opens, allowing an unauthorized intruder into a secure zone.
MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges feature an advanced hardware safeguard designed specifically to stop this exploit. This feature is called a Proximity Check and Transaction Timer.
The system can be configured by system administrators such that it measures the number of milliseconds it takes for data to flow from the badge to the reader. This is made slightly longer when there is a relay which picks up the signal and redirects it over the network. The EV3 chip instantly flags this tiny time delay as an attack and locks down the transaction, preventing the door from opening.
3. Virtualization and Secure Multi-Application Silos
High security occasions are technically complicated. The badge can sometimes serve different purposes simultaneously. An individual can use his badge to gain entry to the fence of the venue, access a secure workstation for seminars, purchase food from the digital cafeteria, and unlock a particular VIP locker.
Basic chip operations raise serious security concerns. In case a hacker breaks through the security of the digital cafeteria system, he will be able to access the master key for the gates of entry.
MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges solve this problem using an architecture called secure multi-application multi-silo virtualization. The chip memory can be partitioned into up to 32 distinct, completely isolated virtual applications. Each individual silo is governed by its own independent set of cryptographic keys.
If a venue catering vendor suffers a data breach, the hacker only gains access to that specific meal-tracking silo. The encryption keys guarding the main venue gates, the secure data centers, and executive green rooms remain completely untouched and secure.
4. Common Criteria EAL5+ Certification and Regulatory Compliance
Government departments, defense contractors, and multinationals work with regulatory compliance rules. Security executives within these companies can’t rely on a vendor for the assurance of the security of their product. They need independent proof that technology can withstand cyber warfare.
The MIFARE DESFire EV3 chip is rated as having Common Criteria EAL5+ certification. This is an international rating used for assessing security products related to information technology. It provides independent verification that both the hardware and software architecture of the chip have been rigorously tested in independent labs.
This test confirms that the chip can withstand sophisticated hacking attacks including side-channel attacks, power consumption, differential fault attacks, and microscopic physical tampering. When a function or event is required to comply with corporate governance laws or government mandated security protocol, the use of an EAL5+ rated badge is a necessity.
Strategic Tips for Deploying MIFARE DESFire EV3 Badges
To maximize the value of your MIFARE DESFire EV3 investment, you must pair the digital technology with smart operational management on-site. For example, you can integrate digital security with visual security.
To achieve this, print high-resolution pictures of your attendees right on the face sheet of your EV3 badge and incorporate security elements that cannot be easily duplicated, such as UV fluorescent inks, micro text, or special holographic foil. Thus, it becomes easy for security guards to recognize an intruder posing with a stolen badge.
Also, you can set up your access control system to operate on rotating session keys. In this case, if an extremely skilled state sponsored attack was to get hold of a single session, it will expire very quickly.
Finally, make sure that your network of hardware readers is completely compatible with the advanced capabilities of EV3. Although legacy RFID readers may be still capable of reading serial numbers of the EV3 badge, they are not going to support advanced AES-256 mutual authentication and proximity transaction timers. Updating badges without upgrading your readers leaves your event open to the same security holes you have tried to patch.
Conclusion
Event organizers choose MIFARE DESFire EV3 badges because they offer better security for their guests. They have unique features that are unavailable in ordinary badges, making them ideal for international shows, sporting activities, political meetings, and other sensitive events.
If you need custom DESFire EV3 badges, reach out to us. We will customize them for you while ensuring that they meet all security and safety standards.
