What is security seals ?

What is security seals ?

Security seals are mechanisms used to seal shipping containers in a way that provides tamper evidence and some level of security. Such seals can help to detect theft or contamination, either accidental or deliberate. Security seals are commonly used to secure truck trailers, vessel containers, chemical drums, airline duty-free trolleys and utility meters. Typically they are considered an inexpensive way of providing tamper evidence of intrusion into sensitive spaces.[1]

Contents
1 Vulnerabilities
2 Operation
3 Metal seals
4 Plastic seals
5 Technologies for marking the seals
6 See also
7 References

Vulnerabilities

Security seals are not designed to resolve all security problems:

The effectiveness of seals is strongly dependent on the proper protocols for using them. These protocols are the official and unofficial procedures used for seal procurement, storage, record keeping, installation, inspection, removal, disposal, reporting, interpreting findings, and training. With a good protocol, a modest seal can provide excellent security. On the other hand, a sophisticated seal used poorly may be worse than useless if naively trusted.
—Vulnerability Assessment Team at Argonne National Laboratory, [2]

The same organization demonstrated that a trained individual was able, using low-tech methods, to defeat 90% of the 244 seals they studied in less than 3 minutes, and all of them in less than 44 minutes.[3] They offer ideas on countermeasures, and are exploring the promising option of "anti-evidence" seals