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GCN Home > 04/30/07 issue

Kevin Kaporch | The Keys to Secure Documents

GCN Interview with Kevin Kaporch, the Government Printing Office's director of product security

By Jana Cranmer, GCN Staff

As the Government Printing Office’s director of product security, Kevin Kaporch has a lot of experience with supply-chain security and counterintelligence. Now he is offering his expertise to the broader community. In March, he stepped up as a government adviser to the Document Security Alliance (DSA). The alliance is a public/private partnership of more than 75 companies and 15 government agencies.

It was established after the 2001 terrorist attacks to provide a forum for sharing techniques that could prevent counterfeiting of documents such as passports, birth certificates and driver’s licenses. Kaporch will continue serving full time at GPO as he begins volunteering for DSA. GCN asked Kaporch about what he plans to offer DSA and what work he does at GPO.

GCN: What do you do as director of product security?

Kaporch: It is my job to ensure the integrity and security of our manufacturing process, as well as the supply chain that feeds that manufacturing process.

[The job] entails protecting the manufacturing process, making sure it has total integrity and security. It also goes to the protection of its supply chain. Passports have more than 100 components to keep them safe. Those sources need to be embedded; we need to know the paper hasn’t been compromised and that it’s manufactured in a secure way.

GCN: What are some of the biggest challenges to product security?

Kaporch: It is all about the supply chain. For example, something like a Social Security card is one product GPO produces but doesn’t produce it [in-house]. It is a contract with one of our security printers, so we would do the same thing we would do with our own plant — make sure the plant is secure, that their personnel are cleared, if necessary. And we’d look at their supply chain. We’d want to know if the substrate for the Social Security card is produced in a secure way. We’d audit the environment and want assurance that the product is not manufactured for anyone else.

More news on related topics: IT Security, Content / Record Management, IT Management, Business Process Management



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