@Risk

A report last year by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Technology Evaluation found that counterfeit electronics are present in troubling amounts in the Department of Defense supply chain.

Then, in March, the Senate Armed Services Committee launched an investigation into this growing problem.

Now, the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) has announced “Operation Chain Reaction,” a new comprehensive initiative to target the counterfeit and pirated goods entering the supply chains of the DOD and other US government agencies.

This is the first time that IPR Center participants have come together to collectively address the threat posed by fake parts in government supply chains. The list of IPR Center participants includes:

• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
• US Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Naval Criminal Investigative Service
• Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS)
• US Army Criminal Investigative Command, Major Procurement Fraud Unit
• General Services Administration, Office of Inspector General
• Defense Logistics Agency, Office of Inspector General
• US Air Force, Office of Special Investigations

In a press release, ICE revealed a few examples of recent investigations involving counterfeit products entering the federal supply chain. Check out these cases, which illustrate the need for immediate attention to this critically important issue: (more…)

Counterfeit products are a threat to everyone’s health and safety. Plus, they extract an enormous economic toll, as well. Analysts now estimate that counterfeiting costs US companies alone $250 billion and results in the annual loss of 750,000 American jobs.

What can your company do to combat this growing global concern?

For starters, I suggest you read through a free report recently published by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

This report, Best Practices in the Fight against Global Counterfeiting: An Action Guide to Strengthen Cooperation and Collaboration across Industry Sectors and among Global Supply Chains,  is the product of a 2010 ANSI workshop and conference on anti-counterfeiting, and it includes insights from industry representatives and professionals from trade organizations and associations, academia, consumer groups, law enforcement, and government agencies.

The report also outlines several recommendations to assess and address counterfeiting across industry sectors. These suggestions include: (more…)

Last week, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced that it has launched an investigation into counterfeit electronic parts in the Department of Defense’s supply chain.

According to a statement by Senators Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the presence of counterfeit electronic parts in the Defense Department’s supply chain is a growing problem, and both government and industry share a common interest in solving it.

From the statement:

Counterfeit electronic parts pose a risk to our national security, the reliability of our weapons systems and the safety of our military men and women. The proliferation of counterfeit goods also damages our economy and costs American jobs.

A report last January by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, Office of Technology Evaluation, found that counterfeit electronics are already present in troubling amounts in the DOD supply chain. The report, which covered 2005 to 2008, revealed that:

• More than one-third (39 percent) of the companies and organizations included in the study had encountered counterfeit electronics during the four-year period.

• The number of incidents grew from 3,868 in 2005 to 9,356 in 2008.

OTE made several recommendations in the report. For example, in order to inhibit the circulation of counterfeit electronics, the OTE wants the US government to: (more…)

The European Parliament has approved a new law to help prevent fake drugs from entering the supply chain. The legislation introduces new safety regulations, traceability measures and sanctions against counterfeiters.

The problem of counterfeit drugs is a growing concern throughout the world. Researchers estimate that 1 percent of medicinal products sold to the European public through the legal supply chain are now fake. In other parts of the world, more than 30 percent of the medicines on sale can be fake, and counterfeiters appear to be increasingly targeting innovative and life-saving drugs.

An article at PharmaTimes outlines provisions of the new EU legislation. For instance, the new regulations require that: (more…)

Enhanced awareness, improved monitoring and more stringent authentification criteria appear to be helping to reduce identity fraud in the US.

In fact, new research produced by Javelin Strategy & Research and sponsored by Fiserv, Intersections Inc. and Wells Fargo & Company, shows that approximately three million fewer adults were victimized by identity fraud in 2010, compared to 2009. That’s a 28 percent drop over the past year and the largest single-year decrease since Javelin started tracking data in 2003. It exceeds the combined decline from 2003-2007, when identity fraud started to increase again. Previously, the largest decrease in consumer fraud was 800,000 consumers between 2003 and 2004.

But, not all of the data in Javelin’s 2011 Identity Fraud Survey Report was as positive.

The survey also found that: (more…)