Maritime Security & The Useless TWIC
Experience has clearly shown that the concept that the issuance of high-tech biometric transportation security cards, called the Transportation Worker Identification Credential or TWIC, could achieve these goals was fatally flawed from the beginning. With visions of al Qaeda terrorists lurking on US waterfronts and in the bowls of U.S.-flag vessels, Congress in 2002 included in the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) a requirement that unescorted access to secure areas in U.S.
MARAD Releases Report on E-Seals
The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) released the voluminous two-part report evaluating electronic seals for use on cargo containers. The analysis was conducted on behalf of the Cargo Handling Cooperative Program and evaluated the operation of four selected radio frequency (RF) based e-seals and one non-RF e-seal. The goal was to develop a technical baseline that could help stakeholders select appropriate solutions to security, operational, and economic requirements. The e-seals tested were widely divergent and represented trade-offs in areas of frequency, communication protocol, reader infrastructure, and seal location. The report recognizes that e-seals alone will have only a limited impact on improving container security and future efforts should focus on the entire container.
Savi Technology and Oneseal to Develop Revolutionary Electronic Bolt Seal
Savi Technology announced at today's opening of the U.S. Maritime Security Expo in New York that they will jointly develop and market a disposable low-cost electronic bolt seal that automatically transmits alerts over radio frequencies when locking mechanisms on cargo containers are tampered with or violated. The new electronic seal will combine EchoPoint, Savi's latest, sixth-generation, active radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, with OneSeal's design and manufacturing skills for high-security locks. The partners plan to introduce a widely affordable product by early next year that will dramatically improve the security and management of cargo containers moving throughout the global supply chain by ship, rail and truck.
