“Our number one challenge is counterfeit parts”- declared the head of procurement quality assurance of NASA in 2012. Why is NASA, the organization landing robots on Mars, considering this topic a top priority? Because counterfeiting has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from automobile and aviation accidents, electrocution to taking fake medicine. And as long as there are willing or uninformed buyers, counterfeiters will keep getting better at their trade, once again, threatening consumer safety. How do we know we made progress since 2012? How do we measure success in
|