Method and system for shipment authentication

In one embodiment of the present invention, a source point of a supply chain secures shipment of an object by devising an encryption key (604) and encrypting a message (610) using the encryption key to produce an encrypted message (612). A portion (606) or portions of the encryption key and the encrypted message are included or incorporated (614) within the object to be shipped, packaging surrounding the object, and/or labels (608) affixed to the object or packaging (602), prior to shipping the object to a destination point within the supply chain. Upon receipt of the object from the supply chain, the destination point can extract (902) the portion or portions of the encryption key and the encrypted message from the object, packaging surrounding the object, and/or labels affixed to the object or packaging, obtain (904) the remaing portion of the encryption key directly from the source point, reassemble (907) the encryption key, and decrypt the encrypted message to produce a computed message. The destination point can then obtain the original message from the source point and compare (908) the original message to the decrypted message in order to determine whether or not the shipment is authentic.