Securing disaster supply chains with cryptography enhanced RFID

Purpose - Humanitarian logistics is an essential element of disaster management and it presents many challenges due to the unique disaster relief environment. The paper describes the main features and challenges of humanitarian logistics and the potential role of technology. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has been increasingly considered to improve the efficiency of supply chain management. Security is an important requirement for disaster management. The purpose of this paper is to propose and describe the application of secure RFID technology to improve the management and security of relief supply chains. Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes the challenges of disaster of supply chains and how secure RFID can address them in the overall framework of disaster management. Findings - The paper describes the efficiency of the crypotgraphic algorithm used in the design of the secure RFID, the system architecture and the deployment workflow. Practical implications - The establishment of a logistics tracking framework based on secure RFID has the potential to greatly increase the effectiveness of future emergency crises response operations. Originality/value - The originality of the paper is to present the application of secure RFID to the context of disaster management, where the security of supply chains is often not addressed.