The U.S. Department of Homeland Security will ask the nation's largest shipping companies to install electronic sensors and use reinforced metal seals on its steel-box cargo containers to prevent tampering, The New York Times reported.

Under the "smart box" program, companies would have a choice of installing the sensors and using the seals on their current stock of cargo containers or facing time-consuming customs inspections when cargo arrives at American ports, The Times said.

Robert Bonner, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told The Times the government had established manufacturing standards for a small, hand-sized electronic sensor priced at less than $20 each that could be installed in cargo containers and that could be capable of determining whether a container's doors had been opened.

Shipping companies that meet the new requirements would be allowed to send their containers through customs "green lines" that are being established at major ports for quick processing, Bonner said.