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Title: Tamper-indicating seals : practices, problems, and standards

Abstract

Tamper-indicating seals have been used by customs officials for over 7,000 years. Today, seals are widely used to help counter theft, smuggling, sabotage, vandalism, terrorism, and espionage. Despite their antiquity and modern widespread use, however, there remains considerable confusion about seals, as well as a lot of misconceptions, wishful thinking, sloppy terminology, and poor practice. The absence of meaningful norms and standards, together with the surprisingly limited amount of research and development (R&D) in the field of tamper detection, has also hindered the effective use of seals. The Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) at Los Alamos National Laboratory has intensively studied tamper-indicating seals for the last 12 years. We have engaged in vulnerability assessments, R&D, consulting, and training for over two dozen United States government agencies and private companies, as well as for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Euratom. The VAT has also analyzed over 200 different types of seals in detail. This paper summarizes some of our conclusions, recommendations, and warnings regarding seals and tamper detection.

Authors:
 [1]
  1. Roger G.
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
976504
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-03-0269; LA-UR-03-269
TRN: US201017%%653
Resource Type:
Conference
Resource Relation:
Conference: Submitted to: World Customs Organization Security Meeting, February 11-14, 2003, Brussels, Belgium
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE; DETECTION; EURATOM; IAEA; LANL; RECOMMENDATIONS; SABOTAGE; SECURITY; THEFT; TRAINING; VULNERABILITY; SEALS

Citation Formats

Johnston, R G. Tamper-indicating seals : practices, problems, and standards. United States: N. p., 2003. Web.
Johnston, R G. Tamper-indicating seals : practices, problems, and standards. United States.
Johnston, R G. 2003. "Tamper-indicating seals : practices, problems, and standards". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/976504.
@article{osti_976504,
title = {Tamper-indicating seals : practices, problems, and standards},
author = {Johnston, R G},
abstractNote = {Tamper-indicating seals have been used by customs officials for over 7,000 years. Today, seals are widely used to help counter theft, smuggling, sabotage, vandalism, terrorism, and espionage. Despite their antiquity and modern widespread use, however, there remains considerable confusion about seals, as well as a lot of misconceptions, wishful thinking, sloppy terminology, and poor practice. The absence of meaningful norms and standards, together with the surprisingly limited amount of research and development (R&D) in the field of tamper detection, has also hindered the effective use of seals. The Vulnerability Assessment Team (VAT) at Los Alamos National Laboratory has intensively studied tamper-indicating seals for the last 12 years. We have engaged in vulnerability assessments, R&D, consulting, and training for over two dozen United States government agencies and private companies, as well as for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Euratom. The VAT has also analyzed over 200 different types of seals in detail. This paper summarizes some of our conclusions, recommendations, and warnings regarding seals and tamper detection.},
doi = {},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/976504}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2003},
month = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2003}
}

Conference:
Other availability
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