Cargo theft is more sophisticated than ever—and as a result, business leaders are increasingly concerned about the security of goods moving through supply chains, according to a report from technology provider SmartSense by Digi, released this week.
The company surveyed 150 U.S.-based loss and organized retail crime (ORC) prevention leaders for its latest Cargo Theft Report. The results show that cargo theft has become increasingly coordinated and sophisticated: 81% of respondents said it has become more organized in recent years, and 79% said their organization is more concerned about cargo theft today than ever before.
And the researchers say technology is playing a growing role on both sides of the issue.
“Cargo thieves have continued to escalate their tactics and expand their use of technology,” Guy Yehiav, president of SmartSense by Digi, said in a statement announcing the findings. “Businesses need to evolve with it. New forms of instantaneous location tracking and visibility intelligence are needed to understand what normal movement looks like, identify anomalies quickly and act before suspicious activity turns into a multimillion-dollar loss.”
According to the survey, businesses are facing highly coordinated criminal networks that exploit vulnerabilities across the supply chain using increasingly sophisticated tactics. And they are facing them more frequently. More than 60% of respondents said cargo theft incidents have increased compared to last year, for instance, and 81% said organized retail crime is a growing concern for their organization. Those problems are creating big losses: 80% of respondents said cargo theft incidents have led to lost sales for their organization, 40% reported annual losses of at least $1 million due to cargo theft, and 28% reported annual losses of more than $2 million.
When asked about cargo theft tactics, respondents identified fraudulent pickups and carrier impersonation (78%), GPS jamming and spoofing (71%), trailer theft (66%), and double brokering (64%) as their top concerns.
The researchers said the data paints a “troubling picture” of organized criminal operations targeting U.S. supply chains through a wide range of tactics designed to evade traditional security measures.
“Cargo theft is increasingly a cybersecurity issue as much as it is a physical security issue. If criminals gain access to transportation or logistics systems, they can potentially identify what is being shipped, where it is going and when it will be there. That intelligence can turn a shipment into a very specific target,” Scott Glenn, vice president of asset protection at The Home Depot, said in the statement. “As criminal organizations become more sophisticated, companies have to think about protecting the data surrounding a shipment just as seriously as they protect the shipment itself.”
The good news is that companies are taking the threat seriously: 70% of respondents said their organizations are investing more this year in cargo theft prevention compared to last year. And they are specific about the capabilities they say will make the biggest difference in fighting cargo theft, citing real-time location visibility and data that can be used to identify recurring theft patterns or high-risk routes.
But technology is only one part of the solution, according to the research.
“Successfully combatting cargo theft also requires faster coordination and response when incidents occur,” according to the report. “Just 37% of respondents say they regularly report incidents and work directly with law enforcement on investigations. Since many thefts go unreported, the true scale of the problem is likely larger than current figures suggest.”
SmartSense by Digi is a business unit of Digi International. The company provides IoT Sensing-as-a-Service solutions, including personalized asset tracking, monitoring, process digitization, and decision-making solutions.
