Counterfeiting is a problem that seems to be prevalent all over the world. Cheap alternatives for expensive products are bound to sell - but at what cost? To answer the question simply, it is at the loss of the original products. With alternatives looking better than the real thing, people today are opting for the former - as long as one is talking about clothes or watches this problem can be brushed off, but it is only when one starts looking into issues such as medicines that the enormity of the problem comes to light. Drug manufacturers are fighting a losing battle to ensure that their drugs do not get counterfeited and sold overseas - a seemingly perfect solution to this problem can be found in RFID today.

RFID in its simplest form is a more stylized version of the barcode, but its applications are many, the most important of them being anti-counterfeiting. Counterfeit drugs are cheap but the cost of a human life is not - RFID labels ensconced in the bottles help identify the real thing from the false and also aid manufacturers in keeping track of the journey made by their products through the supply chain cycle. So sophisticated is this technology that it allows the manufacturer to even identify the final consumer to whom the product has gone to.

Not that this technology is by any means perfect - it has its downsides like most technologies in their nascent stage. Among the challenges that the implementers of RFID face are cost - any technology that doesn't prove economically viable is difficult to work with. The capital-intensive nature of the infrastructural requirements demanded by RFID equipment is enough to make any person reconsider its usefulness. But on the hindsight, it is the markets like counterfeiting and access control that serve to be significant drivers to this industry - this is attributable to the high costs associated with not using RFID equipment.

In existence for over five decades, RFID has never actually been implemented to its fullest potential in the security industry. It is only recently that this technology began emerging and people are getting acclimatized to its possible applications that they are contemplating on its uses. Being one of the most versatile technologies, who knows how else this technology can impact the security industry let alone our day-to-day lives.