Ask anyone within the government security identity market how best to describe the process of issuing secure identity credentials and the overwhelming answer is "complex."
by Tatiana Bolívar
The number of interdependent processes combined with the nature of each solution's customization creates an elaborate ecosystem. The evolution of credentials from a single application to a multi-function application has only expanded this complexity.
The good news is that continuous industry innovation has led to new approaches, technologies, and products to help make the delivery of security credentials extremely successful, secure, and efficient.
Ensuring one identity per person
At the heart of every government identity program is secure personalization. The production, coding and printing of identity credentials ensure an identity for each person.
Innovations have been introduced to address the evolving needs of secure personalization and more and more governments are transitioning their national identity programs from traditional documents to electronic identity documents. Specific factors that are driving these innovations include:
Security concerns;
* The need for more efficient delivery of public services;
* The evolution from a single application to multi-function and multi-technology identity credentials;
* The need to have identity documents that can be updated, and
* The incorporation of multiple layers of security: visual, physical and digital.
Achieving high performance in the falsification-proof issuance for the new generation of credentials requires a security implementation and integrated processes to produce as a final result a robust, durable and valid security credential.
The Saudi Arabian government's national identity program is proof of the importance of security in personalization. Saudi Arabia needs a legal identity per person and for reliable identification to extend beyond the boundary controls of government agencies and be accessible to service providers such as banks.
Saudi Arabia selected the HID Global credential, based on LaserCard's® optical security media, a technology whose digital security has never been compromised in any government program globally. A combined centralized –decentralized credential issuance model was implemented, including a distributed issuance in 20 cities using credential customization and management software, approximately 60 customization systems, operator training and operational support in place.
The innovation of new technologies
Sophisticated credentials feature layers of visual, physical and digital security that not only enable secure authentication, but also enable other functions such as access to security facilities, faster border crossing or to make fee or tax payments in a secure manner and these are some key mechanisms that are helping governments protect their citizens and their borders, as well as optimizing a wide range of services.
The most sophisticated identity programs are highly customized, high-volume, and demanding. Issuing security requires high-performance industrial printers with high capacity and fast performance.
Much of the debate about the most advanced, and supposedly more expensive, electronic identification programs revolves around the initial cost of the project compared to the return on investment, which is calculated not only according to the functionality, but also to the life cycle of the card. With this in mind, the ability to provide credentials that can be updated after being issued is a vital aspect of program design and budget allocation.
New developments in credential printing technologies achieve greater durability which reduces the need to reissue cards, with their respective costs, as well as being virtually tamper-proof and highly resistant to discoloration and chemical exposure.
Fundamental in this type of development is the multi-functional identification card that takes advantage of a variety of technologies and integrated devices. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's "Green Card" illustrates the growing trend toward using multiple technologies in a single credential. The Green Card has set the global standard for security in major government identification programs focused on citizenship.
Since it was implemented 14 years ago, more than 20 million cards have been issued to permanent residents and to date the digital security of the card has not been able to be manipulated, modified or falsified. Different forensic document specialists agree that the Green Card "has effectively put counterfeiters out of business."
In 2010, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security introduced a state-of-the-art Green Card that features a number of innovations to improve digital and visual security, as well as a multi-technology design to more efficiently manage borders.
Centralized - decentralized emission alternatives
The physical creation of today's advanced credentials requires specialized printers that are integrated with personalization systems to issue fully secure IDs. In addition, these credentials must be designed to incorporate specialized technologies such as holographic film, security inks, and processes such as reverse transfer printing.
This has resulted in a new generation of high-resistance transfer printers, which feature a number of features designed for maximum security in critical government and state identification programs. Most of these high-capacity printers have also been integrated into security systems to limit access to different facilities by unauthorized persons.
Government identity programs in particular, the demand for a high duty cycle, scalable card issuance systems, in the past, this meant selecting a very large printer to produce massive quantities of cards in a safe place. Such large machines were expensive and complex to maintain and had to have inevitable production shutdowns in the event of a breakdown or simply when needing a replacement of consumables.
With this in mind, many governments and state identification programs are creating small high-production, high-security units with new printers – encoders, allowing them easy maintenance, flexible setup and continuous production, at a much better price than larger printing options.
Today between 10 and 12 printers - industrial encoders can with the processing capacity of a large traditional printer, at a fraction of the cost of hardware. High-capacity desktop printers provide an effective solution to enhance and deliver a centralized solution, as well as greater benefits in a distributed broadcast operation.
Using a set of printers means that if a printer is offline, most of the production capacity remains operational. Built-in redundancy offers greater benefits. A new printer can stay above 90 percent of its production capacity without setbacks, while if a standalone traditional machine needs service or maintenance there is no redundancy and therefore no production.
Another benefit of the new printers is that they can be in a central production facility with other printers or deployed in distributed sites in order to offer local citizens the option of "instant issuance". This service not only adds value by providing a better customer experience, but creates a potential stream of new revenue with a higher rate for identities that need to be issued immediately.
The Republic of Angola replaced its existing national identity documents with an identification card system that is not only resistant to counterfeiting and durable, but is an element of identity for its entire population – a difficult task as most of its 16 million citizens live in remote areas in dispersed rural areas.
In addition to helping achieve the government's vision to provide one legal identity per person, it offers the built-in ability to easily add future applications and features. The government also provides a solution that allows the capture of distributed data and its issuance, as well as a credential that allows the secure storage and ease of transport of personal, demographic and biometric digital information stored on the card itself.
The new ID card program meets these challenges by deploying mobile data capture and card issuing units to be close to 160 urban facilities. Data is sent to the centers via secure satellite transmission or uploaded in batches once the mobile units return to a data center.
The mobile units also undertake to issue the final identification credentials in the peripheral areas. In order to obtain their new ID card, each cardholder must provide a fingerprint and iris scan, which are compared to the biometrics on the card. Although the show is currently at a relatively early stage of its broadcast, this has already prevented a number of fraud attempts.
In short, today's most sophisticated identification projects are highly customized, high-volume and highly demanding. An integrated approach to personalization and issuance – from credential design to delivery – is critical to a successful delivery of ID credentials. These new solutions and workflows laid the foundation for a very safe, effective and efficient issuance process.
* Tatiana Bolívar is the Sales Director for Latin America in hid Global's Identity and Access Management division.
