Shamir said the pressure to get tags down to five cents each has forced designers to eliminate any security features, a shortcoming that needs to be addressed in next-generation products.Eventually these dullards will have to talk to real engineers.
Separately, cryptographers discussed the weaknesses in the fundamental SHA-1 hashing algorithm that were announced at the group\ufffds panel in 2005. "That was a real wake up call for cryptographers," said Rivest, who is also professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.
(One hopes.)