@Risk

Counterfeiting operations continue to expand in reach and sophistication, and that means counterfeit products increasingly threaten your supply chain –not to mention the health and safety of millions of people worldwide, as well.

There appears to be a growing consensus that traditional methods of oversight and enforcement are simply not enough to stem the tide of fakes, and legitimate businesses are hungry for innovation to help protect their products and intellectual property.

Case in point:  Last month, the iconic acoustic guitar manufacturer C.F. Martin & Co., announced that it is partnering with Applied DNA Sciences to help secure its brand from global counterfeiting threats.

According to the Applied DNA Sciences website, the company can use DNA to protect either a product or the entire supply chain.  One method, called the SigNature DNA solution, uses DNA from plants to mark and authenticate products. Another, called BioMaterial GenoTyping, can use DNA present in natural material to assure originality and quality throughout the supply chain. Applied DNA Sciences lists applications in: (more…)

The nation’s electrical power grid is becoming increasingly interconnected through the internet, and while this technological sophistication provides significant benefits, it also comes hand-in-hand with considerable risk:

Enhanced interconnectivity means the power grid is now more vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Fortunately, researchers are now hard at work, designing safeguards to help protect the grid from computer viruses trying to wreak havoc on the system.

For instance, Errin Fulp, professor of computer science at Wake Forest University, is developing an army of “digital ants” that can scour computer networks looking for threats such as computer worms and self-replicating programs designed to steal information or facilitate unauthorized use of computers. When one of these digital ants detects a threat, it is designed to send for more ants to converge at that particular location, drawing the attention of human operators to investigate further.

“The idea is to deploy thousands of different types of digital ants, each looking for evidence of a threat,” Fulp said in a press release. “As they move about the network, they leave digital trails modeled after the scent trails ants in nature use to guide other ants. Each time a digital ant identifies some evidence, it is programmed to leave behind a stronger scent. Stronger scent trails attract more ants, producing the swarm that marks a potential computer infection.”
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US technology companies are growing increasingly concerned about supply chain issues.

New research by BDO USA, LLP found that US and foreign supplier concerns/supply chain issues are now considered a top risk factor by 86 percent of the 100 largest publicly traded technology companies analyzed –that’s up 15 percent from last year’s survey results.

Even so, supply chain issues came in tied for sixth place on the list of top 10 risk factors. Here’s the complete list:

• Competition, consolidation and pricing pressures (97 percent)
• US general economic concerns (96 percent)
• Federal, state or local regulations (96 percent)
• Failure to properly execute corporate strategy (93 percent)
• Failure to develop or market new products or services (88 percent)
• Legal proceedings (86 percent)
• US and foreign supplier/vendor concerns, supply chain issues (86 percent)
• Management of current and future M&A or divestitures (85 percent)
• Threats to international operations (85 percent)
• Predicting customer demand and interest, innovation (85 percent)

The list of the top 20 risk factors cited by the 100 US tech companies in the survey is available here.

BDO USA also found that:
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Following a decrease in market size of some $20.0 billion from 2007 – 2009, researchers from Analytiqa now predict that spending on logistics across North and South America could increase by approximately $106 billion through 2012, including an impressive 32 percent increase in logistics outsourcing expenditures.

Even so, the North and South American Logistics 2010 study, which sized logistics markets and evaluated outsourcing rates across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United States, found that 3PLs looking to capitalize on this enormous growth will have to overcome a few significant challenges, related mostly to flexibility and speed. (more…)

The Canadian federal government has launched a new air cargo security screening program for shippers and forwarders.

The $95.7-million program, which will be phased in over five years, involves new technology, more inspectors and additional training, and under the new initiative, the Canadian government will increase the scope of mandatory screening at various points in the supply chain –for example, by making the higher-risk classes and the sources of air cargo a priority.

Like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Certified Cargo Screening Program (CCSP) here in the U.S., this new program will create additional screening capacity upstream in the supply chain, so that security can be improved, but screening bottlenecks at airports can be avoided.

During his announcement of the new measures, Canada’s Transport Minister John Baird pointed out that 75 percent of commercial cargo travels in planes that also transport passengers.

“We must remember that terrorism is not just something that happens somewhere else to someone else,” he said.

According to a press release, the program aims to achieve four important goals: (more…)