Reviewing the Drivers and Challenges in RFID Implementation in the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

Counterfeiting is a global phenomenon that poses a serious financial threat to the pharmaceutical industry and more importantly jeopardizes public safety and security. Different measures, including new laws and regulations, have been put in place to mitigate the threat and tighten control in the pharmaceuticals supply chain. However, it appears that the most promising countermeasure is track-and-trace technology such as electronic-pedigree (E-pedigree) with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. In this study we present a framework exploring the antecedents and consequences of RFID applications in the pharmaceutical supply chain. The framework proposes that counterfeiting and E-pedigree regulation will drive the implementation of RFID in the pharmaceutical supply chain, which in turn provides strategic and operational benefits that enable competitive advantage. Meanwhile, the implementation of RFID requires overcoming many operational, technical and financial challenges. The framework provides a springboard that future study can explore using empirical data

Product Authentication Using Hash Chains and Printed QR Codes

This thesis explores the usage of simple printed tags for authenticating products. Printed tags are a cheap alternative to RFID and other tag based systems and do not require specialized equipment. Due to the simplistic nature of such printed codes, many security issues like tag impersonation, server impersonation, reader impersonation, replay attacks and denial of service present in RFID based solutions need to be handled differently. An algorithm that utilizes hash chains to secure such simple tags while still keeping cost low is discussed. The security characteristics of this scheme as well as other product authentication schemes that use RFID tags are compared. Arguments for static tags being at least as secure as RFID tags is discussed. Finally, a scheme for combining RFID authentication with static tags to achieve security throughout the supply chain is discussed

Taxonomy development in information systems: Developing a taxonomy of mobile applications

Product counterfeiting is a growing problem worldwide, threatening the health of consumers and reducing company profits. By detecting and intercepting counterfeits before they reach the customer, the problem can be mitigated. In this paper, an approach to detect counterfeit items based on their claimed history is presented. The necessary data is provided by tracking infrastructures that enable the recording and retrieval of movements of individual items in the supply chain based on unique identifiers assigned to products. If the movement history of an item deviates from the movements of genuine items that have been learned before, a warning about a potential counterfeit is issued. Counterfeiter activities that are possible in a tracking enabled environment are modelled and the capability of the proposed approach to detect these strategies is assessed

Currency security and forensics: a survey

By its definition, the word currency refers to an agreed medium for exchange, a nation’s currency is the formal medium enforced by the elected governing entity. Throughout history, issuers have faced one common threat: counterfeiting. Despite technological advancements, overcoming counterfeit production remains a distant future. Scientific determination of authenticity requires a deep understanding of the raw materials and manufacturing processes involved. This survey serves as a synthesis of the current literature to understand the technology and the mechanics involved in currency manufacture and security, whilst identifying gaps in the current literature. Ultimately, a robust currency is desire

Benchmark Legislation: A Measured Approach in the Fight against Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is unique in the field of counterfeiting because criminals only attempt to copy the appearance of a drug, not its actual effect. Because such counterfeit drugs are cheap to make and ineffective or dangerous, counterfeiters see immense profits without regard for the potential for injury or death. Furthermore, the complexity of distribution channels and lax penalties result in little risk for criminals. One potential tool to address this problem is an electronic pedigree system that would track shipments of drugs and reduce the opportunity for counterfeiters to infiltrate the supply chain. Unfortunately, such a system is years away from being effectively implemented. To compound the problem, soaring drug prices and a dwindling economy have led to calls for free importation from countries that have less expensive drugs. Yet many of those countries have counterfeit problems of their own. Because of the risk to human life, safety must take priority over efforts to reduce costs. The best solution to pharmaceutical counterfeiting is a single bill that attacks the problem in steps that are implemented when certain objective criteria are met. First, criminal sanctions should be increased to at least match those of illicit drug trafficking. Next, e-pedigree should be implemented when technology advances to the point that it is affordable and reliable. Finally, once safety is assured, the bill should reconsider reimportation plans

Clone tag detection in distributed RFID systems

Although Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is poised to displace barcodes, security vulnerabilities pose serious challenges for global adoption of the RFID technology. Specifically, RFID tags are prone to basic cloning and counterfeiting security attacks. A successful cloning of the RFID tags in many commercial applications can lead to many serious problems such as financial losses, brand damage, safety and health of the public. With many industries such as pharmaceutical and businesses deploying RFID technology with a variety of products, it is important to tackle RFID tag cloning problem and improve the resistance of the RFID systems. To this end, we propose an approach for detecting cloned RFID tags in RFID systems with high detection accuracy and minimal overhead thus overcoming practical challenges in existing approaches. The proposed approach is based on consistency of dual hash collisions and modified count-min sketch vector. We evaluated the proposed approach through extensive experiments and compared it with existing baseline approaches in terms of execution time and detection accuracy under varying RFID tag cloning ratio. The results of the experiments show that the proposed approach outperforms the baseline approaches in cloned RFID tag detection accuracy