NFC World

NFC Forum releases bidirectional IoT communication standard

NFC Forum enhances connectivity of IoT devices with new and updated specifications — NFC Forum — “Bidirectional communication with IoT devices means NFC-enabled smartphones can read the actual state from the IoT device (eg, the actual title of music played) and can change the configuration of the IoT device by write access (eg, to adjust the volume or to switch to the next audio file). It can be used, for example, to configure an audio system, digital camera, lightning system, smart meter or radiator valve. This protocol can also be used where P2P is not implemented, for example, on existing NFC readers that do not support P2P mode.”



New protocol alerts users to encryption breaches

Computer scientists address gap in messaging privacy — University of Birmingham — “With current end-to-end encryption, if an attacker compromises a recipient’s device, they can then put themselves in a position to intercept, read and alter all future communications without sender or recipient ever knowing. The new protocol, published in IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, forces attackers to leave evidence of any such activity and alerts users to take action.”