Minneapolis -- In the age of government-targeted cyber attacks and widespread counterfeit electronics, the ability to trace a supplier and verify the authenticity of critical military products is more important than ever.

Verify Brand recently enhanced its advanced serialization, traceability and authentication platform, VB Enterprise, to support asset visibility and supply-chain security for OEMs and government contractors.

The VB Enterprise platform uses unique, unpredictable codes or serial numbers, as well as product traceability, to help combat potentially dangerous counterfeits and secure the supply chain for mission-critical parts, including command, control, communications and computer (C4) equipment. Testing and validating all hardware and software components used in this equipment can be extremely difficult and time consuming because the products come from a range of vendors that support both commercial and defense customers.

The Verify Brand platform allows users to quickly and easily confirm the authenticity of products, so suspicious components can be targeted for thorough testing and validation, while verified products continue through the supply chain. Suspicious parts can be identified, quarantined and electronically reported to trading partners.

“The VB Enterprise supports secure serialization, product tracking and product authentication across the supply chain of brand owners, distributors, logistics partners and defense contractors,” said Mark Prokosch, Vice President of Verify Brand. “Combining secure, unpredictable unique identifiers with traceability software drastically reduces the proliferation of counterfeit parts within the defense supply chain.”

The VB Enterprise platform offers complete chain-of-custody proof – from manufacturing centers to customer receipt – to verify the authenticity of C4 equipment or other high-value goods, and to track suspicious products back to their suppliers. This is especially crucial to helping prevent the spread of malicious software, or malware, which can infect a military network, damage vital equipment or expose critical military information to outside parties.

In addition to supporting counterfeit protection and avoidance programs, the VB Enterprise platform provides compliance with the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) MIL-STD-130 standard, which requires that assets valued at $5,000 or more be “marked” with Item Unique Identification (IUID) codes. The DoD uses these codes to track and account for assets.

Defense contractors, OEMs and subcontractors can use the VB Enterprise platform to support the entire process of creating and registering standard-compliant IUID codes. The platform also can communicate with the DoD’s IUID registry to automate DoD registration, saving hours of time when registering large deliveries of products. All events and alerts – from IUID creation to product acceptance – are cataloged in reports, which can be monitored via the Web, on any mobile device or via scheduled emails.

Verify Brand is exclusively focused on enabling serialization and traceability systems for unique identification life-cycle management. The company’s first customer was a medical device division of a Fortune 50 life sciences company. Verify Brand’s Software as a Service, cloud-based solutions enable brand owners to address numerous supply chain security and management challenges as well as rapidly emerging regulatory or commercial or government procurement requirements for serialization and traceability around the world. Verify Brand services are helping to secure hundreds of millions of products with customers across industries and languages in more than 80 countries around the world.

Verify Brand
06.06.2013