CSDs: Not ready for prime time
Journal of Commerce
Monday, May 26, 2008
By: R.G. EDMONSON
A new name, but the game's the same: Container security devices are now conveyance security devices - they can be applied to trailers as well as ocean containers. After Sept. 11, the CSD was touted as one of the foundations of international cargo security. It was an electronic device mounted on a container to detect intrusions by terrorists intent on using the supply chain to smuggle a weapon of mass destruction.
The CSD never quite made the big time. Early models were unable to stand up to the rigors of cargo handling. They sounded too many false alarms. They had no common technical standard. They just broke.
They are still not ready for widespread commercial adoption. More than seven years after Sept. 11, no one, except maybe some members of Congress, sees the devices as the panacea to protect the supply chain.
"A CSD is not a silver bullet. Simply applying one to every box does not guarantee you security," said Todd Owen, Customs' executive director of cargo and conveyance security. "We see value to these devices in certain applications, but only after we're satisfied that the technology has proved itself."
Members of Congress have been sufficiently bullish about CSDs that they have nudged the Department of Homeland Security toward adopting a standard. The SAFE Port Act and the bill to adopt all the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission gave Customs deadlines to complete the CSD standards. But lawmakers gave the agency an out: If Customs wasn't going to write the rules, it would have to explain why. "The SAFE Port Act said you have to do it, or explain why you didn't. We explained why we didn't," Owen said. "The 9/11 Act said again that you had to have an interim final rule by April 1, 2008. If you don't, then you're going to have to require a high-security mechanical seal."
On Oct. 15, Customs will require all inbound containers to have a security seal, but they mean a hardened bolt or cable seal that meets the International Organization for Standardization standard No. 17712. "We think 95 or 96 percent of the people are already doing this. The actual impact of this is going to be marginal," Owen said. "Outside of that, we're still pursuing the conveyance security device."
In February, 10 manufacturers submitted proposals that described their security devices. Customs selected three, General Electric, Science Applications International Corp., and iControl Inc., to make prototypes that will be tested by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Owen said Customs should have the prototypes by early July.
Well before vendors answered Customs' request for proposals, some private-sector voices began to ask if the CSD would add any value or even improve supply-chain security. Use of the device is not likely to become mandatory, so why should companies invest in them for Customs' sake?
"We have to ask ourselves, what is our objective, to stop a determined, sophisticated terrorist or to reduce theft and pilferage?" said Earl Agron, director of security at APL Ltd. "We have to understand what the problem is before we talk about a solution."
Agron said containers are most vulnerable to thieves when they are on the railroads. Thieves can cut one container bolt seal after another before guards can chase them away. "It's not an easy thing to stop - you try to control it," he said. "The CSD doesn't make it harder to break into the container; at best, it tells you that it's been broken into - past tense.
"If you're going to stop a determined terrorist, you have to ask: How robust is the CSD going to be? Is it difficult to defeat, or will the terrorist to be able to enter through the doors without being detected?" Agron said. Customs specified a device to monitor the container's right-hand door. That leaves the left door, top, sides, bottom and end to be cut into undetected.
"The problem with door sensing is that the containers are all over the place as far as the condition they're in. We get 'door-open' readings from the sensors while the bolt is still closed, because the containers start to shift, and the door sensor says, 'Hey, I'm open,' " said Scott Kirk, executive vice president of container seal manufacturer E.J. Brooks. "That's causing a false-positive read, so that's why we're focused on the seal as being the most failsafe kind of read."
Kirk said E.J. Brooks is designing devices that use cellular telephone or satellite phone technology to communicate with a shipper. The CSDs that Customs wants to test use radio-frequency identification technology. The cell device can communicate from the container at any point in its travels. RFID devices only read point-to-point, whenever a device passes a fixed reader, but nowhere in between.
The CSD that uses cellular technology could have a wider appeal, he said. The device could be useful for inventory control. If the device detects an open door, but the seal is in-tact, the shipper could check for damage caused by the shifting container.
Customs has said that using a CSD could raise a shipper to a higher tier in the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism hierarchy. However, Kirk said a shipper would see a device that can serve the needs of 10 departments as a better investment than a device that only benefits the compliance department and Customs.
"I think the market has grown tired of security issues. It's reoriented to supply-chain return-on-investment," Kirk said. "We're finding customers are very interested in the benefits of C-TPAT, but all customers are concerned about what return they are going to get in visibility, and how much that is going to cost."
A successful security system must meet three criteria, Agron said: It has to measure something; a user has to be able to evaluate the data to screen out false alarms; and someone has to respond to the alarm. Even a reliable technology could result in Customs officers wasting time responding to thousands of false alarms.
"The law of unintended consequences . . . maybe we've made the supply chain a little less secure and a little less resilient because they aren't doing other things they should be doing," Agron said.
Customs does not foresee CSDs deployed in the millions, Owen said. If any of the prototypes pass, they will be tested in ways that they might be used in everyday commerce. |
