Methods, systems and computer program products for providing mutual authentication for radio frequency identification (RFID) security. Methods include receiving an authentication request at a RFID tag from a requester, where the request includes an encrypted access role. An encrypted secret message is transmitted to the requestor in response to receiving the authentication request. The encrypted secret message is based on the encrypted access role received from the requester. An access request specifying a work area and including a random number that is encrypted is received from the requester at the RFID tag. The access request was generated by the requester in response to the RFID tag being successfully authenticated by the requestor using the encrypted secret message. The requester is authenticated at the RFID tag. The authenticating includes determining the value of the random number sent by the requester and verifying that the work area is valid for the encrypted access role. If the authenticating is successful, the RFID tag responds to the access request using the value of the random number as an encryption key.