Spying Out Tapes in Transit

Last week's announcement of a GPS-based tracking system for tapes could be the first in a new wave of technologies designed to avoid the embarrassment of lost tapes.

In addition to Fujifilm, which revealed its plans to work with defense contractor QinetiQ around tape tracking last week, Warrenville, Ill.-based firm Private Pallet Systems is also making moves in this space.

The startup has developed a container that uses both RFID and GPS technology for monitoring purposes, according to John Samony, a senior technical consultant at the firm.

"We have been in development for this technology for the past three years and [we're] in the process of a market roll-out," he writes in an email to Byte and Switch.

Using satellite technology to track tapes on their journeys offsite may conjure up images of James Bond, but users should not perceive this as some sort of security silver bullet.This was the message from Clipper Group analyst Mike Kahn, who warned that even state-of-the-art GPS monitoring has its shortcomings.

"It only works with something that can be shipped on the ground," he says, explaining that services such as Fujifilm's Tape Tracker rely on cellular networks to transmit location data to the Internet.

"You can't put one of these on an airplane [because] it's using similar frequencies to a cell phone," adds the analyst, highlighting just one potential pitfall of the technology.

Another potential problem is the possibility of a hacker breaking into the Internet system for tracking the tapes. Hijacking a truck to steal a set of tapes may sound far-fetched, but it is a very real national security concern.

Although still in its infancy, Fujifilm insists that the Tape Tracker solution has already been hardened to avoid this type of scenario. "The Web application is hacker safe," says Dan Greenberg, new product planning manager at Fujifilm. "It's password protected and it runs over an encrypted SSL link."Fujifilm execs refused to reveal any more details about how it will keep Tape Tracker secure for fear of divulging too much information.

Clearly, the whole issue of GPS-based tracking is something of a sensitive topic, and vendors are still feeling their way around the technology.

It is too early to say whether satellite monitoring will spell the end for lost tapes, but it could at least cover your own back when your boss wants to know what safeguards are in place.Have a comment on this story? Please click "Discuss" below. If you'd like to contact Byte and Switch's editors directly, send us a message.