U.S. Senate: Counterfeit electronic parts pose national security risk

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) is turning up the heat on a bi-partisan effort to investigate the "growing problem" of counterfeit electronic parts turning up in the DoD supply chain. Led by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI) and John McCain (R-AZ), the Senate committee investigation comes in response to a report issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce in January 2010, which found that 39 percent of electronics companies contracted by the DoD encountered counterfeit electronics from subcontractors -- a percentage which more than doubled from 2005 to 2008.

As reported by the D.C. politics watchdogs at Talking Points Memo:

In testimony last week before the House Judiciary Committee, Victoria Espinel, U.S. intellectual property enforcement coordinator for the executive office of the president, said her office is working "intensely" with the DoD and NASA on a plan to stop counterfeit products from entering the military and "critical infrastructure supply chain, which put our military and national security at risk."

We'll continue to follow this story here at Interconnection World.