Security in Global Commerce Bolstered by Affordable RFID-Enabled Container Seals

IPICO Inc. (an RFID and supply-chain solutions supplier), the E.J. Brooks Company, and Tenacent have developed a passive RFID-enabled container seal that will help to cost-effectively speed entry and shipment of goods within — as well as across — borders. It will enhance security in ports around the world. The BIT Intermodal Electronic Container Seal is a multilayered solution to track and verify a container's integrity.

IPICO (www.ipico.com) developed the Brooks-IPICO-Tenacent (BIT) seal through technical collaboration with E J Brooks, the world's largest supplier of mechanical ISO 17712 compliant security seals and Tenacent, the holder of an international patent for RFID enabled tamper evident seals. The BIT seal utilizes IPICO's proprietary IP-XTM UHF RFID technology to verify the integrity of a shipping container in the event of possible tampering and automates collection of information on the security status of shipping containers at cross-border points of control to provide an audit trail of events from the initial sealing to the final destination.

The U.S. Department for Homeland Security and the European Union mandated detailed security protocols that apply to the approximately 230 million containers that land in global ports each year. IPICO and its partners developed the multilayered BIT security seal to both fit the budgets of commercial players and comply with relevant international security standards. The BIT seal will be the first passive RFID transponder device to support both EPC Gen 2 and IP-X protocols on a single tag solution. It reads tags at very high speeds and supports the operation of large numbers of UHF RFID readers in the same frequency band, which is essential for countries with limited spectrum availability.

The BIT seal is designed to seamlessly fit the shipping industry's typical operational cycles. Manual completion of paper documentation can be replaced with electronic scanning of the seal and container IDs using a handheld RFID scanner. If a high level of security is required, a digital signature can be written onto the tag, using the unique private encryption key of the shipper. The information representing the sealing event will be automatically dispatched to a back-end system, and if necessary, to a trust centre.

Authorization of dispatching a sealed container can be linked to the right combination seal, container, truck and driver IDs. At an inspection point, typically Customs and Border Control at a large port, the seal status will be verified automatically using overhead readers at the entrance. Authorization to pass through or unload can again be linked to the expected combination of seal, container, truck, and driver IDs. A customs inspector can use a scanner loaded with a set of matching public encryption keys to verify the authenticity of seals and pick out seals that were replaced or not properly signed. Should it be necessary to open and inspect a container, the relevant customs authority can use an authorized seal to replace the initial seal, and write its own digital signature onto the new one. And these procedures neatly fit into the Green Lane/Red Lane concept envisaged by U.S. Customs to combine high levels of security with efficient cross-border operations.

To date, pre-production versions of the BIT seal have been successfully tested and demonstrated to customs authorities and commercial players in China, Pakistan, South Africa, Latin America, France, and the U.S., and it is currently undergoing pilot trials in several of these countries.

"The BIT seal has the potential to establish a worldwide standard for secure electronic container seals," says Gordon Westwater, President, IPICO Inc. "This product will enable global rollout of the container security technology envisaged post 9/11. It satisfies the requirements of customs and port authorities and also fits the budgets of the commercial players that will eventually foot the bill."

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