The Approaches to Against Counterfeiter Electronic Products
No matter in consumer products or electronic components, product counterfeiting has been an issue in many industries. In many instances, the counterfeit products affect the bottom line and a company’s reputation. High-end luxury consumer goods, such as handbags and wristwatches are among the most susceptible to counterfeiting, and the brand holders spend large amounts of money to trace and eliminate the counterfeit products and the people responsible to ensure that fake products don’t sully their brands. Besides the electronic components also are the field that has the most counterfeiter products. It is said that if terrorism did not exist, counterfeiting would be the most important criminal act of the early 21st century.
The harmful effect of counterfeit product
Counterfeit product not only destroyed consumers’ confidence to the performance, reliability, and safety of branded devices, it also tarnishes brand image, customer loyalty, and satisfaction. And it has broader negative effects, such as reducing the value of intellectual capital, eroding profitability, and stifling innovation. It hurts not only the companies making the components but also the financial health and ability to invest in future innovation of all companies across multiple industries—from intellectual-property-right holders of the embedded software, firmware, and codecs in these devices to proprietary SOC architectures. Furthermore, counterfeits of electronic components and system-level products as well as mechanical products and prescription medications can also affect personal safety and security. Counterfeiters often sell an inferior product as the genuine article, and the fake products typically fail to meet the full range of genuine product specifications and performance standards. Unfortunately, counterfeit electronic products, including ICs and battery packs, have also found their way into military, health, and transportation systems, and those systems could fail in the field, jeopardizing military and civilian lives.
Tag Security
There are multiple approaches to prevent counterfeit products from functioning in a system and thus prevent potential damage. At the simplest level, a product such as a battery can include an electronic signature that the host system must recognize for the product to work. To add an extra layer of security, the product can include an encrypted identifier to ensure that the counterfeiters cannot duplicate the signature.
By attaching a secure electronic ID tag, Containers holding prescription medications or stand-alone mechanical products also could be “tagged”. These tags can prevent counterfeit products from entering the supply chain. Manufacturers in the luxury-goods market can embed contactless tags that contain a security handshake in an ID tag that either attaches to or is permanently embedded in the product. The tag must also be small and be available in various form factors to accommodate the shape of various products, such as wine bottles, handbags, or jewelry.
Technologies to prevent counterfeiter
Various approaches can be used to minimize the influx of counterfeit products into the supply chain. Technologies such as holograms and simple RFID transmitters are no longer adequate because counterfeiters keep up to date on the latest copying and code-breaking techniques. Using sophisticated manufacturing equipment and technologies, well-organized groups have now shifted their targets to include more low-margin, high-volume products, such as consumer electronics and consumables.
Going wireless
Going wireless is a slightly higher-cost approach which can help eliminate the pins. For example, NFC technology, using the NFC-enabled product and standardized secure contactless tags and readers, can play a role in this market. Manufacturers can use such approaches to protect themselves and consumers by strengthening the anti-counterfeiting arsenal.
Authentication systems
One of the main problems the authentication systems needed to solve is to balance the cost of protection and the value of the protected product. This is especially critical when it comes to relatively low-cost products, such as toner cartridges, batteries, and other consumables. This cost factor has played a major role in preventing consumer-electronics manufacturers from successfully employing what is perhaps the best technology for protecting their products: asymmetric authentication. It is necessary to have many technologies and approach to prevent the illegal copying of products. These more-robust approaches employ strong cryptographic techniques and strong authentication to protect some high-value products. Until now, however, these approaches are cost too high and it is complex to implement in lower-cost, high-volume products, such as ink and toner cartridges for printers and batteries for mobile devices. To walk the fine line between the product’s cost and the overhead to protect the product is necessary.