Latch monitoring apparatus for a shipping container door

A latch monitor for a container door, comprising:

• a magnet attached to a moving portion of a latch mechanism attached to said container door;
• an array of magnetic sensors disposed in fixed positions relative to a stationary portion of said latch mechanism and proximate a path traversed by said magnet;
• a non-transitory memory for storing data provided by said magnetic sensors corresponding to relative positions of said magnet with respect to said array of magnetic sensors, said memory including a first non-transitory memory segment having stored therein a magnetic signature of magnetic sensor output signal values established and produced by said array of magnetic sensors corresponding to said latch mechanism being in a secured state of said latch;
• and
• a processor operative according to an executable program for analyzing said data to distinguish tampering events from a secured indication of said latch mechanism.