The deep web, the dark web, and simple things

Smart Cosmos – powered by SmartracJul 7, 2017 ·

Researchers on internet topology indicate hidden portions of the internet dwarf the visible portion of the web, the so-called ‘surface web’ that is accessible via search engines and web crawlers. Although estimates vary, the amount of content on the surface web is believed to be several orders of magnitudes less than unexposed portions.
The analogy of an iceberg used by data scientist Denis Shestakov is useful for exploring the hidden portions of the internet, and its corollary in the physical world of items. The deep web includes a subset of content that is referred to as the ‘dark web,’ which resides on darknets. The utilization of darknets includes, but is not limited to illegal activities such as terrorist networks, pedophiles, and drug traffickers.

Items: Connected Devices are the Tip of the Iceberg
Surface Items
The iceberg analogy can be extended to connectivity in the physical world. Web connectivity typically has a physical endpoint such as a smartphone, computer, or connected device. These devices and gadgets, which can be viewed as ‘surface items’ are typically comprised of active electronics, provide a physical-to-digital bridge between web content and the rest of the world including people, sensors, and other devices. The Internet of Things (“IoT”) trend is certainly gaining momentum, with Gartner estimating as many as 20B new connected devices coming online by 2020.

Deep Items
However, there also exists a vast network of ‘deep items’, analogous to the deep web. Deep items consist of trillions of loosely associated physical items which are only partially identifiable or connected. Take for example a commercial airplane manufactured by Boeing or Airbus. An airplane is in many ways a connected ‘device’ with multiple communication links to the Internet, various control points, navigation systems, and input/output channels. The airplane itself is a uniquely identifiable physical entity that allows for address assignments in the various communication links. However, the airplane is also comprised of hundreds of thousands of individual physical components, subsystems, materials, and assemblies. A Boeing 737 has 367,000 parts, manufactured by hundreds of suppliers and thousands of 2nd tier suppliers, and jumbo jets such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 are reported to have as many as four million separate parts. Clearly, only a small portion of these parts are directly addressable and traceable back to the original and history of that part.
Each of these physical components have a history that is both physical and digital, with specifications, purchase orders, testing parameters, acceptance criteria, manufacturing dates, etc. Thus, the connected systems, or ‘surface items’ in the airplane represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of potential connectivity for the airplane as a whole, accounting for less than 1% of the total parts, which include many safety-critical and life-critical components.
Dark Items
Unfortunately, just like the use of the web for nefarious activity, there are trillions of dollars in global trade in illegal, illicit, and unauthorized items. Economists have estimated the global size of the black market ‘shadow economies’ for goods and services as high as $16.5T per year, comprising over 22% of global GDP.* Black market trade in goods is well documented, with serious global counterfeit and gray market issues ranging from branded products to life-critical items such as pharmaceuticals and implantable medical devices. The proceeds from the trade in such ‘dark items’ often contribute to the further acceleration of organized crime.** Such shadow economies thrive in an unconnected environment, as lack of visibility allows unauthorized products to move freely across borders and into supply chains.
Returning to the commercial airline example, the rise in trade of counterfeit parts has led to action by the US Government in statutory anti-counterfeit controls implemented in the 2012 National Defense Authorization act for aerospace and defense suppliers to the US Department of Defense, and formal aerospace industry standards to combat the counterfeit parts crisis.*** However, such measures simply chase the symptoms of the underlying problem, which is that there is no addressability of items back to the original, authorized source at the time of manufacture.
‘Dark items’ are a very real problem for the airspace industry which many of us rely on for safe transportation. The Internet of Things (“IoT”) trend has clearly gained momentum, with Gartner predicting 20B connected devices by 2020. However, these surface items comprised of connected devices and gadgets will do little to bring visibility to the trillions of ‘deep items’ and ‘dark items’ such as counterfeit goods.
Global supply chains today need a scalable way to digitize physical items such as products and commodities — without having to reinvent them. It is simply not feasible or appropriate to add active electronics to bring visibility to things in the ‘deep item’ realm. And the good news is that you don’t have to. Product digitization allows you to connect and track every offline product, online, by embedding NFC intelligence (the same technology in your smartphone that make things like Apple Pay work) directly into them.
NFC to Bring Deep Items to the Surface: A Digital Identity
Global supply chains will not add cost to items without corresponding value. Value comes from a combination of connectivity, control, and context. Connectivity starts with adding a cost-effective physical connector to an item using NFC standards, providing a secure, item-specific identifier to the item, with a corresponding secure digital identifier in the cloud. Much like the global electronic passport technology pioneered by Smartrac, the digital identity must be secure and unique in order to be a key to unlock valuable information. Secondly, supply chains need process controls and tools to associate information securely to items throughout the lifecycle of the product. Finally, end users must have tools and systems that provide customized contextual information at the point of use, such as an aircraft mechanic trying to understand a problem in a safety-critical assembly.
Read more:
Implementing the Internet of your things — A closer look at the process to make your products smarter
That sounds cool. But in practice, it’s a really big deal. Because when you embed intelligence into your products, you don’t just digitize them — you digitize your business, you are protecting your value chain, and you are routing information to those who need it most. You are providing a commercially valuable address and communication channel to the many ‘deep items’ and helping provide visibility that can prevent the proliferation of ‘dark’ things that can hurt people, businesses, and governments.
Author: Leonard Nelson, Smartrac
Source:
*Ceyhun Elgin, Oguz Oztunali 10 May 2012, Shadow economies all around the world: Model-based estimates
**OECD, Trade in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods, Mapping the Economic Impact. Published on April 18, 2016
***SAE International standard AS5553, Fraudulent/Counterfeit Electronic Parts; Avoidance, Detection, Mitigation, and Disposition