Deliberate destruction in clothing and other items

     According to an RSA laboratories FAQ, RFID tags can be destroyed by a standard microwave oven;  however some types of RFID tags, particularly those constructed to radiate using large metallic antennas (in particular RF tags and EPC tags), may catch fire if subjected to this process for too long (as would any metallic item inside a microwave oven). This simple method cannot safely be used to deactivate RFID features in electronic devices, or those implanted in living tissue, because of the risk of damage to the "host". However the time required is extremely short (a second or two of radiation) and the method works in many other non-electronic and inanimate items, long before heat or fire become of concern.

    Some RFID tags implement a "kill command" mechanism to permanently and irreversibly disable them. This mechanism can be applied if the chip itself is trusted or the mechanism is known by the person that wants to "kill" the tag.

    UHF RFID tags that comply with the EPC2 Gen 2 Class 1 standard usually support this mechanism, while protecting the chip from being killed with a password. Guessing or cracking this needed 32-bit password for killing a tag would not be difficult for a determined attacker.