‘Industry must understand the threats’

A tried and tested supply chain security management programme (SCSM) is key to reducing supply chain risks, according to a report on Supply Chain Security in the 21st Century compiled by Securitas and the global Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations agency. It advises members of the logistics industry to continually evaluate their current security situations and educate themselves about the threats and criminal modus operandi. “A good place to start is to get a qualified third party to identify security threats as a neutral party will have no blind spots,” says a Securitas spokesperson. Three aspects of security need to be addressed – personnel access, outsider access and physical security inside and outside of the perimeter. Tracking along the full spectrum of the supply chain is also a major requirement to lower threat vulnerability. The Transported Asset Protection Association (Tapa) identified several major supply chain threat trends for 2014, based on incidents in 2013: Supply chain threats identified by Tapa in 2013 60% of all security issues involved poor transportation-related security. 20% involved poor security at the manufacturing site, including poor access controls and poor security practices within the shipping and receiving departments. 75% of the incidents had an internal connection. 90% of the time, the security weaknesses were well known internally by staff. involved b 15% ribes and kickbacks