Some of these standards are huge – one is said to run to 18 volumes – and keeping on top of them requires a more than a certain attention to detail.
But one contributor to the recent ESCO anticounterfeiting seminar wondered if these standards were actually beneficial. “AS6081, for example, doesn’t keep counterfeit components out of the supply chain,” he said. “Neither does it ensure reliable silicon and cloned devices have defeated the standard.”
In his view, counterfeiters welcome these standards. “They see them as targets to be met,” he contended. “Customers have to help themselves by procuring safely.”
It’s a funny old world where administrators may be inadvertently helping counterfeiters to jump through the very hoops they have set up.
