Counterfeit medicines are a fundamental security problem, poses tremendous threats to patient safety, public health, and the economy in developed and less developed countries.

However, manufacturing prescription drugs with distinct markings, colors, shapes or packaging isn’t enough to protect them from counterfeiting, according to a report from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which was recognized for ‘Excellence in Homeland Security’ in the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.

One excellent way for guaranteeing the high security of on-dose authentication and protection against counterfeiting medicines is to take advantage of ‘physically unclonable functions’ (PUFs).

Purdue University researchers have created just such a PUF; an unclonable silk film “security tag” to go on the surface of drug capsules, in order to secure the medications authenticity. 

To imitate the drug, a counterfeiter would have to uncrack a complicated puzzle of patterns not fully visible to the naked eye.

(Purdue University researchers are aiming to stump counterfeiters with an edible “security tag” embedded into medicine. Courtesy of Purdue Engineering and YouTube. Posted on Jan 16, 2020.) 

Fake medicine is a thriving business, claiming thousands of lives each year and making up at least 10% of global pharmaceutical commerce.

In the U.S., counterfeit drugs range from cancer and diabetes treatment to erectile dysfunction medication.

Counterfeit opioids alone have caused deaths in 46 states.

“Every single tag is unique, offering a much higher level of security,” explained Young Kim, an associate professor in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Noting that the ability to tag drugs would not only guard against fraudulent, inadequate and potentially life-threatening consequences, but also help pharmacies better verify the legitimacy of a drug before selling to consumers.

The tag acts as a digital fingerprint for each drug capsule or tablet, using an authentication PUF, that was originally developed for information and hardware security.

PUFs have the ability to generate a different response each time that they are stimulated, rendering them unpredictable and extremely difficult to duplicate.

Even the manufacturer wouldn’t be able to re-create an identical PUF tag.

Kim’s group is the first to create an edible PUF, which is a thin, transparent film made of silk proteins and fluorescent proteins genetically fused together.

Because the tag is easily digestible and made entirely of proteins, it can be consumed as part of a pill or tablet.

Shining various LED light sources on the tag excites the fluorescent silk microparticles to display cyan, green, yellow or red fluorescent colors, which generates a different random pattern each time.

Digital bits can then be extracted from an image of those patterns to produce a security key, which a pharmacy or patient would be able to use to confirm that a drug is authentic.

The researchers are currently converting this process to a smartphone app for both pharmacies and consumers.

“Our concept is to use a smartphone to shine an LED light on the tag and take a picture of it,” said Jung Woo Leem, a postdoctoral associate in biomedical engineering at Purdue.

“The app then identifies if the medicine is genuine or fake.”

The tag also has the potential to hold much more information than simply a confirmation of what the drug is, Leem said, for example such as the dose and expiration date of the medication.

Leem found that the tag works for at least a two-month period without the proteins degrading.

The team is next working to confirm that the fluorescent silk tag could last as long as a medication does, and that it would not affect a medications’s key ingredients or potency.

Two patent applications have been filed for this technology through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization.

CryptoMED LLC, a new company founded by Young Kim, will continue to develop the mobile technology and is looking for partners to scale up.

The work was supported by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA2386-17-1-4072).

To Learn More, view the full article published in the journal Nature Communications. 

DEA Honored in 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day Initiative

• The National Prescription Drug Take Back Day hosted by the DEA and its national, tribal and community partners aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.

• In response to the dramatic increase in America’s teens use of vaping devices, the DEA for the first time on Saturday, October 26, 2019 began accept vaping devices and cartridges at all of its drop off locations across the nation.

(Hear directly from Acting DEA Administrator Uttam Dhillon. According to the CDC, almost 400,000 Americans died from prescription and illicit opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2017. In 2017, more than 2.1 million Americans were addicted to opioids. Courtesy of CBS This Morning and YouTube. Posted on Oct 22, 2019.)

2019 ‘ASTORS’ Government Excellence Award Recipients Also Include:

Commissioner William J. Bratton

• 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Person of the Year

• Extraordinary Leadership in Homeland Security & Public Service

• Commissioner William (Bill) Bratton, one of the world’s most respected and trusted experts on risk and security issues and Executive Chairman of Teneo Risk a global advisory firm, was recognized as the ‘2019 ‘ASTORS’ Person of the Year’ for his Lifetime of Dedication and Extraordinary Leadership in Homeland Security and Public Safety.

• Commission Bratton, delivered an impassioned and compelling keynote address at the 2019 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Luncheon,  as he walked attendees through 50 years of American policing history, the impacts on the communities, and the evolution of critical communication capabilities in our post 9/11 landscape.

• The Commissioner is widely sought by both national and international news outlets, law enforcement agencies, industry leading Fortune 500 companies and public safety agencies for his insight and vast expertise relating to crime, public safety, counterterrorism, risk mitigation, crisis management, and first responders interoperability (i.e., federal, state and local law enforcement, fire, EMS, health, hospitals) in the event of a critical incident or emergency.

• Over the course of his 46-year career in law enforcement, he instituted progressive change and achieved dramatic decreases in crime while leading six police departments, which includes seven years as Chief of Police for LAPD, and two consecutive terms as Police Commissioner of the City of New York, driving down crime, improving public safety, and working to strengthen community relations while in each post.

• As Executive Chairman of Teneo Risk, Commission Bratton regularly counsels clients on risk identification, prevention, and response, with an emphasis on six key areas which includes: cybersecurity, critical infrastructure protection, counterterrorism, health advisory, internal threat mitigation, and crisis management.

John F. Clark, CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Mr. John F. Clark was with the United States Marshals Service (USMS) for 28 years, serving as head of the USMS from 2006-2011.

 

• Prior to the USMS, Mr. Clark served with the United States Capitol Police and United States Border Patrol.

• He has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) since 2015, where he has led a complete transformation of the organization.

• NCMEC is unique as an non-profit organization in that it has certain Congressionally established mandates such as the CyberTipLine, which is the nation’s 9-1-1 reporting mechanism for reporting potential child exploitation, child pornography and missing children.

(Hear from John Clark, president and the CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, on Operation Cross Country X, and the importance of working together to fight child exploitation and sex trafficking. Courtesy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and YouTube.)

• • Excellence in Public Safety

  • Fugitive Task Forces

  • The U.S. Marshals Service currently leads 60 Regional fugitive task forces which combine the efforts of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend the most dangerous fugitives and assist in high profile investigations. 

(See a brief introduction to the United States Marshals Service narrated by John Walsh from America’s Most Wanted. Courtesy of Shane T. McCoy and YouTube.)

 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate

• • Excellence in Public Safety

  • Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Program

• The Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Program works with first responders across the country to ensure the technology they use while responding to an emergency keeps them better protected, connected and fully aware.

• These cutting-edge technologies will improve emergency response time and accelerate decision-making to save more lives.

• NGFR is comprised of more than 40 research and development projects geared towards making responders better protected, connected and fully aware.

(The DHS S&T Next Generation First Responder (NGFR) Program recently partnered with public safety agencies from the City of Birmingham and Jefferson County, Alabama, for the NGFR Birmingham Shaken Fury Operational Experimentation (OpEx). The OpEx assessed first responder technologies that addressed the region’s public safety capability gaps to help ready agencies for the World Games 2021 and unexpected natural disasters. Courtesy of DHS S&T and YouTube. Posted on Oct 24, 2019.)

Federal Protective Service in Collaboration with the Argonne National Laboratory

• Best Big Data Analytics Solution

• Federal Protective Service Threat Assessment Report

• The Federal Protective Service Threat Assessment Report (TAR) is an automated, human-in-the-loop, machine learning (ML) new threat and vulnerability assessment framework that has significant, long-term impact for FPS and the greater national security community. 

• The new process uses hundreds of data points, including facility-specific information; historical threat-incident data; and external, open-source data (e.g., census and income information) for a data inform set of over 250 factors which guide the determination of a federal facility’s most likely threats.

Dean C. Alexander

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Mr. Dean Alexander is the Director, Homeland Security Research Program & Professor at Western Illinois University.

• Mr. Alexander is a regular guest contributor to American Security Today.

• Prof. Alexander’s teaching, research, and speaking activities encompass terrorism, security, and legal issues.

• He has lectured in ten countries, including to law enforcement and military officials at North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), U.S. State Department, and National Intelligence University events.

United States Postal Inspection Service

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Office of Investigations

• The United States Postal Inspection Service is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service with jurisdiction of “crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system or postal employees.”

• Their mission is to support and protect the U.S. Postal Service, its employees, infrastructure, and customers by enforcing the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use.

• To protect the mail and to maintain the integrity of postal processes and personnel, the Postal Service relies on the investigative efforts of OIG special agents.

(The Postal Inspectors, Postal Police and Professional, Technical and Administrative staff of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service work hard every day to protect the mail. Hear from them how they do it. Courtesy of the U. S. Postal Inspection Service and YouTube. Posted on Oct 15, 2019.)

DHS S&T National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Responder RAD Preparedness

• Responder RAD Preparedness – DHS Science and Technology Directorate, National Urban Security Technology Laboratory, in partnership with FEMA & the Department of Energy, & National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) provides guidance and exercises for first responders and emergency managers on how to plan for the first minutes of an radiological dispersal device, or “dirty bomb,” detonation.

• A radiological dispersal device (RDD), or ‘dirty bomb,’ detonation in a local jurisdiction will have significant consequences for public safety, responder health and critical infrastructure operations.

• First responders and emergency managers must quickly assess the hazard, issue protective action recommendations, triage and treat the injured, and secure the scene in support of the individuals, families and businesses in the impacted community.

(S&T’s National Urban Security Technology Laboratory collaborated with first responders, DOE, and FEMA to publish the “Radiological Dispersal Device (RDD) Response Guidance: Planning for the First 100 Minutes.” Courtesy of DHS S&T and YouTube. Posted on Apr 1, 2019.)

DHS S&T Office of Mission and Capability Support

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The FOVEA (Forensic Video Exploitation and Analysis) Tool Suite

• The FOVEA (Forensic Video Exploitation and Analysis) Tool Suite is an add-on suite of analytic tools for the forensic review of video in large-scale surveillance systems, developed by MIT Lincoln Laboratory under the DHS S&T Office of Mission and Capability Support (MCS) Surface Transportation Explosive Threat Detection (STETD) Program for Complex investigations.

• Surface transportation such as subway systems can be a unique security challenge due to the large crowds of travelers and the open, unstructured environment.

• S&T is developing technology to detect potential threat items on persons and in bags without negatively impacting the speed of travel – to solve the complex challenge of protecting subways and rail systems from attacks.

• The FOVEA tool allows public safety agencies to speed up the process of reviewing and analyzing security footage in the aftermath of an attack or during an event of interest by creating a summarized video that can be hundreds of times shorter than the original video, well beyond what can be observed via fast forward.

• A path reconstruction tool guides the operator to the next relevant camera view, allowing the operator to quickly follow a person through many cameras and assemble a composite video of the activity, and a prototype of this tool has been deployed to two mass transit facilities and integrated into their video management systems.

Grant Coffey

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Portland Fire & Rescue Hazmat Team Coordinator (Ret), CBRNE Industry Expert, Guest Author and FLIR Systems Brand Ambassador

• With over 37 years in the Fire/Hazmat Industry, Mr. Coffey is focused on using his skills and experience to train and educate first responders and hazmat professionals.

• As Director of Tribute to Honor, Mr. Coffey says he is dedicated to “Helping Those That Helped Us” – responder, military heroes, and their families.

(How often do you expose your equipment to hazardous conditions on the job? And can you claim to have never dropped an expensive tool? In FLIR PRIMED episode 36, Grant Coffey explains important rugged features your equipment should have, and how these features are rated according to international standards. Courtesy of FLIR Systems and YouTube.

• FLIR PRIMED (Prepare, Recognize, Input, Monitor, Experience, Decision) Online CBRNE Training Video Series by FLIR Systems was recognized in the 2017 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program.

Sheriff Tom Knight, Sarasota County Sheriff (FL)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Sheriff Tom Knight

• Sheriff Tom Knight, the 10th Sheriff of Sarasota County, has served since January 6, 2009, following a 20 year career with the Florida Highway Patrol.

• He has demonstrated a lifetime of devotion to public safety and protecting children from abuse and exploitation, most recently with Operation Intercept VI a 4-day initiative focused on protecting Sarasota County children from online predators and human trafficking which resulted in the arrest of 25 child predators.

(Suspects ranging in age from 19-65 responded to Internet-based ads, online apps and social media sites to engage in sexually explicit written and verbal conversations. One of the suspects rode a three-wheel bicycle to the home while in possession of cocaine and another brought with him two firearms and several narcotics. One man attempted to lure the child into his vehicle while several sent explicit photos and brought condoms with them. Ultimately all 25 arrestees traveled with the intent of having sex with a male or female child. Courtesy of the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office and YouTube. Posted on Jul 26, 2019.)

Dr. Sean Lawler

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Supervisory Special Agent
  for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)

• Dr. Sean Lawler is a Supervisory Special Agent with the US Drug Enforcement Administration. SSA Lawler was previously assigned to work international narcotics investigations in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and he currently is assigned as the Aviation Division’s Training Officer/Chief Instructor Pilot.

• Additionally, SSA Lawler serves as a DEA Primary Firearms Instructor, Tactical Instructor, Tactical Emergency Medical Technician, and Active Shooter Instructor.

• Prior to joining DEA, SSA Lawler was a Major in the US Air Force, where he served as an Instructor Pilot, Human Intelligence (HUMINT) Case Officer, and Combat Interrogator.

• The Aviation Division’s mission is to provide aviation support to operational and intelligence elements within DEA and the law enforcement community to detect, locate, identify, and assess illicit narcotics-related trafficking activities.

• Aviation support is critical to DEA’s strategic goal of disrupting and dismantling drug trafficking organizations that have a significant impact on America’s illegal drug availability.

United States Border Patrol

• • Excellence in Homeland Security

  • Border Patrol, Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR)

  • The Border Patrol, Search, Trauma and Rescue (BORSTAR) Unit is a specialized unit of the United States Border Patrol trained in emergency search and rescue & primarily assists injured or stranded migrants who enter the United States illegally from Mexico at remote desert locations.

(John Welter, a Border Patrol agent in the San Diego sector, explains how a little-known team called the Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit, or BORSTAR, has largely gone under the radar. Courtesy of The Daily Signal and YouTube.) 

Dr. Konstantinos Papazoglou and Dr. Daniel M. Blumberg

• Excellence in Scientific Research

• Co Authors of ‘Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience’

• ‘Power: Police Officer Wellness, Ethics, and Resilience’ collectively presents the numerous psychic wounds experienced by peace officers in the line of duty, including compassion fatigue, moral injury, PTSD, operational stress injury, organizational and operational stress, and loss.

• Drs. Papazoglou, a Postdoctoral Scholar, Yale School of Medicine Affiliated Researcher, Teachers College – Columbia University of New York, and Blumberg, a licensed clinical psychologist who has spent the past 33 years providing all facets of clinical and consulting psychological services to numerous local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, describe the negative repercussions of these psychic wounds in law enforcement decision-making, job performance, job satisfaction, and families.

• The book encompasses evidence-based strategies to assist law enforcement agencies in developing policy programs to promote wellness for their personnel.

• The evidence-based techniques presented allow officers to get a more tangible and better understanding of the techniques so that they apply those techniques when on and off-duty.

• The book is an excellent resource for police professionals, police wellness coordinators, early career researchers, mental health professionals who provide services to law enforcement officers and their families, and graduate students in psychology, forensic psychology, and criminal justice.

The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey Police

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The Port Authority Police Department (PAPD), protects and to enforces laws at PANYNJ facilities including airports, seaports, and bridges and tunnels, plus three bus terminals, the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, and the PATH train system.

• The PAPD is the largest transit-related police force in the United States.

(Media Relation’s Rudy King photographs a recent training climb by the ESU up the George Washington Bridge and interviews a member of the elite squad afterward.. Courtesy of New York City Department of Correction and YouTube.)

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• The CyberTipLine

• The NCMEC congressionally mandated CyberTipline is a reporting mechanism for cases of child sexual exploitation including child pornography, online enticement of children for sex acts, molestation of children outside the family, sex tourism of children, child victims of prostitution, and unsolicited obscene material sent to a child available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

(After over 20 years in operation, the NCMEC CyberTipline has received more than 45.2 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation – more than half of those in just the last two years. Recognizing this explosive growth, Congress unanimously passed, and the president signed, a new law to streamline the CyberTipline process and tackle new trends we’re seeing in child sexual exploitation. Courtesy of NCMEC and YouTube. Posted on Jan 23, 2019.)

United States Marine Corps

• Best Cyber Security Program for Government or Military

• U.S. Marine Corps 1700 Cyberspace Operations

• The U.S. Marine Corps 1700 Cyberspace Operations Occupational Field cyberspace workforce works to compete successfully on future battlefields & adapt to the rising threat of near-peer adversaries like Russia and China.

• Additionally, these positions support “the maturation of the Marine Corps’ cyberspace workforce through the establishment of specific career paths, standardized training continuum, and mechanisms to retain trained and qualified Marines within the cyberspace community.”

(See how the new 17XX military occupational speciality is revolutionizing how we do cyber security. Courtesy of the Marines and YouTube.)

Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)

• • Excellence in Homeland Security

• Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) is being recognized for his work on aviation security H.R. 91– Saracini Enhanced Aviation Safety Act of 2019 which would require the installation of secondary cockpit barriers on existing aircraft, and for other purposes.

• Fitzpatrick is a former Special Assistant United States Attorney and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) supervisory special agent in California.

• At the FBI, he served as a national supervisor for the Bureau’s Public Corruption Unit, and led the agency’s Campaign Finance and Election Crimes Enforcement program.

• During his time in the FBI, he spent time in Kiev, Ukraine, Mosul, Iraq and Washington, D.C. He was embedded with U.S. Special Forces as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• Federal Risk Management Process Training Program

• The Federal Risk Management Process Training Program is  Interagency Security Committee certified for Facility Security Officials, Federal Security Supervisors and those involved with Federal facility acquisition, construction, and renovation projects.

• On October 19, 1995, six months after the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12977, creating the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) to address continuing government-wide security for federal facilities.

  Prior to 1995, minimum physical security standards did not exist for nonmilitary federally owned or leased facilities.

New York State Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Services (NYS DHSES)

• Excellence in Public Safety

• NYS Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Drone Training Program

• The NYS Unmanned Aircraft Systems/Drone Training Program helps to safely and effectively leverage UAS in support of the agency’s mission & includes UAS training courses created to help agencies develop their own UAS programs and train UAS Operators.

• One component of the DHSES UAS Program is series of UAS training courses created to help agencies develop their own UAS programs and train UAS Operators.

• The UAS training programs range from basic awareness level training about UAS operations to advanced operator curriculum involving flying UAS in realistic, tactical scenarios. 

Ewart Williams

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• Mr. Williams is an Adjunct Professor for New Jersey City University tailoring courses and mentoring the next generation of National Security and Intelligence professionals.

• The NJCU Professional Security Studies Department has been designated by the National Security Agency (NSA) as a National Center of Academic Excellence.

• The National Security Agency’s program goal is to “reduce vulnerability in our national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in Information Assurance (IA) and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines. Certification… assure(s) the very finest preparation of professionals entrusted with securing our critical information.”

• Mr. Williams works in this framework teaching courses in National Security and Intelligence Programs.

Stanley I. White

• Excellence in Homeland Security

• International Association for Counterrorism & Security Professionals (IACSP)

• As Counterintelligence Advisor Mr. Stanley I. White collects intelligence (OSINT, HUMINT and other available sources) and analyzes the subject information using SWOT techniques.

• His skillset also includes basic Israeli Security methodologies, counter elicitation, anti-surveillance, personal awareness, Keysource Intelligence collection as well as holding certifications as a Protection Specialist, Behavioral Detection and Anti-Terrorism Officer.

• He is also internationally published over the last 18 years on the topics of personal protection/security, intelligence, counterintelligence, hand to hand combat and defensive tactics.

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