Container security still a struggle: research report

Attempts to improve global freight container security so far have been inadequate, according to a new ABI Research report authored by analyst Robert Foppiani. The sheer scale of global container-freight infrastructure, coupled with the vest number of players involved in global supply chains, combine to make the challenge of improving container security almost insurmountable.

Foppiani suggests that efforts underway in the ISO to create a uniform standard for electronic container security should pay off in the next 12 months, but that even then the challenge of getting shippers and port operators to invest in the required technologies and procedures will prove difficult. As he says, everyone pays lip service to the notion of improved security but no one wants to be the first to spend the money required.

TransSec asked Foppiani whether the obstacles he outlined have kept projects such as the Container Security Initiative (CSI) from improving the container security picture as much as they are intended to. Foppiani pointed out that the pre-screening of containers using x-ray and gamma ray scanning has been a significant result of CSI, but that other measures are still required because the scanning technology isn’t 100 percent reliable and pre-screening of all containers isn’t feasible.

“This is just one security layer that has been put into place. Just as scanning suspicious containers is one layer of security, locking and sealing a container is another layer.” Foppiani says that a standard for electronic container seals – ISO 18185 – is now being worked on, but that “even if ratified there is no mandate requiring the use of the electronic seals.”

Foppiani says that current systems, such as GE’s CommerceGuard, are proprietary and are fairly ‘high-touch,’ requiring not only that the actual container-mounted devices be removed and reused at the end of each journey, but also that the required infrastructure be installed to receive security data as containers move through shipment points. If standards such as ISO 18185 can be widely adopted, ports will be able to make the required investment in data-gathering infrastructure without running the risk that security systems will be incompatible.

Still vulnerable: freight container security still faces major technical and financial hurdles according to new market research