Torry Shealy and Eric Dobson

The supply chain is a critical linkage for the globalized economy, but it remains a clear and vulnerable vector for terrorism, theft, and illegal activities domestically, as well as into and out of the country. The supply chain and the facilities that manage it are a loose sieve and are plagued with problems of security. Fear of terrorists using a container to smuggle a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD), coupled with the realities of rising cargo theft, the smuggling of illegal drugs and products into a country and smuggling weapons, money and stolen goods out of a country have raised concerns globally about cargo security.

Read more: Getting Back to the Multi-layered Approach to Cargo Container Security

Eric Dobson

If an RFID Tag sends an alert of tampering, who do you call? Who responds? Who benefits?

Nine million shipping containers enter the United States every year. And, intermodal shipping container security means many things to many people. Many use the term security, but mean asset visibility. Visibility can mean many things to many people as well, ranging from knowing the status and condition of an asset in pseudo real-time down to visibility only at choke points. Security, in the strict sense of the word, includes visibility, but denotes a process of deterrence and prevention of access. Typical tracking and alerting systems offer little or no physical security as several studies have shown. 1, 2

Read more: If an RFID tag screams in the woods...