Security and trust management in supply chains

The past decade in the area of supply chain management has been characterized by increased emphasis on collaboration between trading partners. The paradigm shift from competition to collaboration has been enabled by the explosive growth of the Internet as the medium for exchange of information between a business and its supply chain partners. However, the information that is communicated between the supply chain partners is among the most critical of an organization’s assets and the Internet as a medium of communication is replete with security loopholes. Presents the design of a security architecture that supply chain practioners may implement for secure, scalable and interoperable communication of information with their trading partners. The security architecture recognizes the implicit diversity in the types of supply chain partnerships that requires different levels of security for the different types of data sharing needs between the supply chain partners.