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Ask HN: Why there are no cryptographic bolt-seals?

5 points by Faaak ↗ HN
I just saw a documentary on cocaine traffic in France. A lot a cocaine comes via containers from Colombia.

One of the problems is that the bolt-seals that seal the containers can be faked (serial number). Thus, the end to end chain can not be guaranteed.

To me, a cryptographic bolt-seal could be a very good option. The idea is that upon closure of the seal, a crypto pair is generated in it. Then, the public key is scanned (RFID) and thus becomes the serial number of the seal. The serial number is timestamped and published. Once upon arrival, the customs or the client can check that the seal was not tampered with by public-key cryptography.

All the generated public keys would then be stored on an open database, thus making it impossible to reuse the same seal twice (or by having faked seals).

What do you think of it ?

EDIT: cocaine, not coke

3 comments

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dnh44
It seems like a cool idea but how would it stop the smuggling? The freight companies could just load the container with the contraband before they lock it up.
Faaak
Of what I've understood, the loading is watched by guards (of the banana company for example). And each guard is responsible of its containers it supervises.

Thus, once it arrives in the country, if cocaine is found, then customs will call the other country (I suppose that they have treaties in place) and ...

Also, they said that the majority of the drugs are injected after closing the container, thus proving the utility of these tamper proof bolt seals

relaunched
Tampering with the seal is just one way to do it. When I worked in transportation, we saw an operation that could take trailer doors off a truck, simultaneously, with out breaking the seal. And put them back on when they are done. We've also seen people cut holes in the side panels and patch them when they are finished.

It's an interesting idea. Maybe it creates a "harder door to kick in" and criminals will target containers with non crypto seals.