You are here: Secure ID Cards are the Answer to the Growing Risk of ID Card Fraud
Issue Date: November 2006
Significant investment by leading personal ID solutions provider Payne Security in the manufacture of secure ID cards has ensured it is ideally placed to help meet the growing need for security to combat ID card fraud.
ID card fraud is a growing concern with advances in everyday hardware and software technology allowing fraudsters to purchase graphic design programmes, image capture devices and printers in order to produce a professional-looking standard ID cards. Similarly, the proliferation of websites offering fake IDs provides a convenient route to this lucrative market. A simple search for ID cards on an internet search engine reveals over 7 million responses, many from people offering to produce fake ID cards.
“A typical ID cards design is very simple – easy to produce and visually functional,” explains Simon Wildash, Head of Marketing at Payne Security. “The flipside is that the benefits and simplicity of a typical ID cards also make it easy to forge.”
As a result, many companies are beginning to question how secure they really are. The risks are not limited to direct security threats such as unauthorised site entry, theft or injury to employees. “People assume an ID cards is legitimate because of its very existence. As a result, the brand integrity of an organisation can be severely compromised if its ID cards are counterfeited and misused. Fake student IDs used to obtain a concessionary discount or, more seriously, bogus meter readers gaining entry to people’s homes are examples where identities have been misused,” advises Wildash.
The onus is therefore on companies to beat the counterfeiters by taking their own ID solutions to the next level and the solution advocated by Payne Security is to make security features integral to the secure ID card design. The company uses state of the art security software to design sophisticated ID cards with integrated overt and covert security features. These have been developed from the company’s worldwide experience in protecting brands and documents such as passports, and are now available to increase security within ID cards.
The security technologies make copying and counterfeiting a card much more difficult and can be readily incorporated into the core of each card to provide an extra level of protection. This can make the difference between a secure ID solution and a merely cosmetic one. The range of anti-counterfeit and authentication technologies available includes features such as Guilloche patterns and fine line designs, familiar from their use on bank note production; UV print and microtext solutions that are only visible under Ultra Violet light and magnification respectively. Optically Variable Devices such as holograms or colour shift inks can also be added to provide instant verification and additional security.
Following the company’s acquisition of CSL Digital Print earlier this year Payne Security’s facility in Mold now has digital printing and a clean room environment, enabling a comprehensive range of additional security features to be easily and cost-effectively incorporated into identity cards.
Equally important, the company’s advanced in-house design studio is able to ensure that the addition of security features need not compromise the visual standard of ID cards. A sophisticated and professional corporate image can still be achieved when integrating security into an ID card design. Using the latest design techniques ensures that both the corporate identity and security elements work seamlessly together, with designs tailored to meet each specific branding requirement.
“Once customers have recognised that ID fraud is an issue that can affect them, it is easy for us to integrate security technologies into their ID card solutions, providing protection from fraud and counterfeit use of their personal and corporate identities,” confirms Simon Wildash.
