During times when the supply chain is under considerable strain, the risk of encountering counterfeit components rises. Counterfeit components are more common than you think, and pose a serious threat to electronics supply chains. Counterfeits often fail to meet the required performance demands of businesses, resulting in final products performing intermittently, not to spec, or not at all. Fake components can degrade system performance, cause intermittent performance spikes or delays, and limit the performance of other components in the system. This ultimately leads to product malfunction, which in the case of certain devices such as medical equipment, could be fatal.