Food Fraud - A High Tech Crime?
Over the weekend I was mulling over some aspects of the current horse meat in what were supposed to be Beef Burgers etc. There is an argument for saying that this is an example of Hi-Tech Crime. How?
Processed food is often part of a very long production change and it is only through the use of preservation technologies (such as freezing meat) that food can be slaughtered well in advance of the need for it and sometimes be transported long distances for processing. Livestock, carcasses following slaughter and all the other ingredients that have to be brought together require extensive use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), networked computers systems for databases, payment transfers and so on. The technology allows the source of the food for processing to be separated from the destination of the food unlike any previous time in history. But these long supply chains are then susceptible to criminals who might want to engage in social engineering, old fashioned threats or bribery, possible some computer hacking (doctoring electronic records) and so forth. It is the highly complex technological nature of the modern long supply chains that are both their strength (the apparent enabling of optimised food production) and their weakness as it becomes impossible for individuals (and even some quite large companies) to effectively keep track of what's going on. They have to rely on the technology to do it for them.
And once you do that you have opportunities for the criminal exploitation of those systems.
Processed food is often part of a very long production change and it is only through the use of preservation technologies (such as freezing meat) that food can be slaughtered well in advance of the need for it and sometimes be transported long distances for processing. Livestock, carcasses following slaughter and all the other ingredients that have to be brought together require extensive use of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), networked computers systems for databases, payment transfers and so on. The technology allows the source of the food for processing to be separated from the destination of the food unlike any previous time in history. But these long supply chains are then susceptible to criminals who might want to engage in social engineering, old fashioned threats or bribery, possible some computer hacking (doctoring electronic records) and so forth. It is the highly complex technological nature of the modern long supply chains that are both their strength (the apparent enabling of optimised food production) and their weakness as it becomes impossible for individuals (and even some quite large companies) to effectively keep track of what's going on. They have to rely on the technology to do it for them.
And once you do that you have opportunities for the criminal exploitation of those systems.
