Identity, Secure Documents & Anti- Counterfeiting A Report By Ingenia Technology May 2012
Contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Results analysis 5 2.1 What is a secure document? 5 2.2 What makes a document secure? 6 2.3 Secure documents and security checks 7 2.4 Managing secure documents 7 3. Protecting identities 8 4. Conclusion 10 Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 2
1. Introduction When we think about counterfeiting it s easy to conjure up images of fake products like perfume and other luxury goods. As for our identity, these days it is very easy to think of our online identities built up over numerous services and networks. However, it would be very premature if we did not still consider physical documentation. Passports, licences and certificates remain a huge part of what makes up our identity, and as a result they remain a major target for criminals and counterfeiters. Despite the growing importance of securing our online information, physical identification documents continue to proliferate rather than recede - Frost & Sullivan s 2011 Quantative Global Forecaster report stated that the Government & ID market worldwide grew significantly last year reaching 198 million units shipped. A report from ABI Research released in March 2012 signalled that shipments of driving licences, healthcare, national ID, and voters' cards achieved year-on-year growth of 18% in 2011. These secure documents, much more than our online details, are what we use to prove conclusively who we are on a regular basis and to gain access to a range of services, provided by both public and private organisations. This importance, combined with their ubiquity, makes it easy to understand why these documents are such a target for fraudulent and criminal activity. Indeed, just to highlight the size of the problem, in April 2012 the European Parliament estimated that of the 6.5 million biometric passports in circulation in France between 500,000 and one million are false having been obtained using counterfeit documents. That caveat is hugely significant - the passports themselves are not counterfeit, but they have been obtained fraudulently with other counterfeit documents. If legitimate identification can be obtained in this way then it begs the question - what makes up our identity? Clearly our identities do not begin and end at passports. But how broadly should we cast the net? How secure is this other documentation that can be used to access trusted items like passports? Do people have faith in these documents or the security measures applied to them? Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 3
To answer these questions Ingenia Technology commissioned YouGov 1 to question 2,103 British adults about their experiences of secure documents, which documents they considered part of their identity, their attitudes to existing anti-counterfeiting measures and how they manage their identification documentation. This report presents those findings and also examines the anti-counterfeiting measures that are currently available for document producers and what consumers and producers can do to make their physical documentation more secure. 1 All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2103 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 13th - 16th April 2012. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+). Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 4
2. Results analysis 2.1 What is a secure document? This is a fundamental question, but clearly documents that contain personal information or identification details need to be in some way secure. Unsurprisingly therefore, when asked which personal documents, from a given list, people would describe as secure, the two most popular responses were passports (68%) and driving licenses (56%). However, our research also revealed a worrying lack of faith in the security of personal documents. Given that the two documents mentioned are possibly the most common forms of identification, the fact that nearly a third of people (32%) didn t consider passports to be secure, and 44% of people didn t feel driving licenses to be secure is quite staggering. It is perhaps even more astonishing given that newer passports in particular have so many security features embedded in them, incorporating biometric security overt and covert anti-counterfeiting features and other special printing techniques 2. But these consumer doubts go further than just passports and driving licenses. Indeed 16% of people responded that they didn t consider any of the personal documents listed in figure 1 to be secure. Moreover, as you can see, only a quarter of people said that they felt their bank statement is secure and even fewer (14%) thought that their utility bill is a secure document. It isn t hard to see why they are not considered secure either when bills and statements are often simple printed documents with very few or no security features beyond corporate branding. However, these documents are regularly used to prove our identity, to gain access to services or to apply for other forms of identification like passports. Figure 1 Which, if any, of the following personal documents would you describe as 'secure'? Percentage of responses 1. Passport 68% 2. Driving license 56% 3. Birth certificate 45% 4. Bank statement 25% 5. Land registry documents 20% 6. None of these 16% 7. Utility bill 14% 8. Don t know 9% 2 http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/press-releases/new-uk-passport-unveiled Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 5
2.2 What makes a document secure? There are many security features that can be applied to documents, both overt and covert, so we asked our panel of consumers which of these they had most faith in when it comes to making their identification documents secure. As you can see from figure two the three most trusted features were holograms (61%), identification photos (59%) and watermarks (50%). Obviously all three of these are overt measures. Although they are perhaps the most familiar security features for consumers - featuring on passports, driving licenses and even bankcards in the case of holograms - they are also inherently the simplest for a counterfeiter to identify, pass-off in some form and fool the unwary consumer into believing the document is genuine. For well-funded and determined criminals overt measures such as these are a more obvious target than covert measures like using security inks. Perhaps the most significant statistic revealed by our research though is that a significant proportion of people do not have faith in any of the common security measures listed. As shown in figure two nearly one in ten people (9%) did not believe that any of the features listed made their identification documents secure. Figure 2 Which, if any, of the following make you feel as though identification documents (e.g. passport, driving license etc.) are secure? Percentage of responses 1. Holograms 61% 2. An identification photo 59% 3. Watermarks 50% 4. Special print techniques 43% 5. Barcode / serial numbers 38% 6. Security ink 33% 7. Official branding / logos 23% 8. None of the above 9% 9. Don t know 12% Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 6
2.3 Secure documents and security checks Our research also revealed more insight into the importance of personal documents beyond passports. One of the key figures to emerge was that nearly one in five people (17%) said that they had passed a security check without the use of a passport when it was assumed that one would be needed. Respondents who had passed a security check without a passport said that these incidents, where other documents may have been used, included the airport, for example security checks (11%), other border crossings by road or ferry (3% and 6% respectively), opening bank accounts (11%) or for a job-related reason such as applications and employment background checks (7%). These figures are significant not because other forms of ID are inadequate forms of identification, but because it highlights how much documents other than passports make up our identities. However, as mentioned above, despite this fact many personal documents remain very insecure. 2.4 Managing secure documents Of course another important element of document security is how they are used. Our research showed that 7% of people have had personal documents either stolen or faked. Although it is encouraging that this figure is not higher, it cannot be dismissed. So we wanted to find out more about how people manage their own documents, in particular how people dispose of their personal documents a key issue in the security of documents. When asked how they had disposed of secure documents 78% of people said they had shredded documents. Interestingly our research revealed that older people were more likely to have done so, with 84% of people over 55 shredding documents compared to just 68% of people aged between 18 and 24, potentially suggesting that younger people are not as careful with their personal identification. Despite this, a number of people admit to have either simply thrown secure documents in the regular waste (9%) or recycled with other paper waste (8%). Can document producers help consumers, especially those who do not take additional measures themselves, do more to protect their documents? Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 7
3. Protecting identities As valuable and important as our passport and other high level documents like driving licences are, it is clear that our identities are not defined and authenticated by these documents alone. Instead our identities span a much broader range of items. However, these other items fundamentally lack the security features that have been embedded in items like passports in recent years. Although it is encouraging that our research has not revealed it as a widespread issue, consumers documents are being targeted by criminals and falling victim to theft of information and fraudulent activity at the expense of their own identity. Although media coverage has tended to emphasise the risks posed to the online aspects of our identities in recent times, there is undoubtedly consumer awareness of the steps that can be taken to protect identification documents. Indeed our research has shown that a significant majority of people (78%) have shredded at least some of their secure documentation before disposing of it. Of course the burden of protection should not fall squarely on consumers and certainly secure document producers, particularly at the high level, have always taken steps to ensure that those documents that contain personal and sensitive data are as secure as possible. However, can more still be done to protect the all-important documents that make up our identity? The answer to that question is undoubtedly yes. Well-funded and determined criminals are always looking at ways around anti-counterfeiting measures and document producers must continue to invest in new measures to stay ahead of the counterfeiters. Of course this is not just about adding further security features to passports. It is also a matter of extending the use of anticounterfeit and security features to cover a much bigger range of documents. Multi-layered approach As the results of our research have demonstrated, there is not one singular anti-counterfeiting measure that consumers trust as a primary measure for tackling the problem of counterfeit documents. Indeed a significant number of consumers (9%) said that they don t trust any of the most common security features that we listed. There are many possible explanations for this lack of trust. For many it may be because they do not expect one measure alone to withstand all attacks. It may also be because the sophistication of techniques now available to criminals producing fake items can make it difficult at times for legitimate producers themselves to tell one of their authentic items from a fake. The key to countering this lack of trust is to deploy a number of techniques in a document to create tailored anti-counterfeit solutions to fit each specific Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 8
usage scenario. The overt security measures on the market, such as holograms, watermarks and security inks still have a marked value in the industry, but these must be coupled with covert technology to ensure a truly multi-layered approach to keeping the fakes at arms length. New technology Technology is being embraced across all industries to create sophisticated solutions for consumers. The pace of innovation is ever increasing and this is no different within the anti-counterfeiting space. There are now technologies, which allow products to be authenticated and identified down to unit level, without adding or taking anything away from the surface of the material. One such method is Laser Surface Authentication (LSA ), this can rapidly analyse the surface of any item and produce a unique digital serial code for the item. This code, which has been described as being like a fingerprint or DNA sequence for the item, is unique for every document, card and carton and can be used to uniquely and unambiguously authenticate and trace that item. The serial code is naturally occurring and is not added by any manufacturing step. Hence, there is no way to reproduce it. By embracing new techniques, such as LSA, document producers can ensure that they continue to stay ahead of the counterfeiters. Moreover, many of these new techniques can be incorporated cost-effectively into new sectors and documents where suppliers may not have considered embedding security features previously due to cost concerns. Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 9
4. Conclusion As consumers we are often preoccupied by the priorities in our life, with smaller concerns, at times, going unnoticed, this is no different when it comes to protecting our identities. We ensure we know the location of our passport at all times, and demand the tightest of security solutions to be attached, but we will not think twice about throwing our insurance renewal policy with our account numbers, address and payment details out into the street. In the anticounterfeiting market, it is often these secondary documents that receive less attention - from consumers and producers. But in many ways these documents are the most important. While we have been encouraged by some of the results of our research, it has also shown that attitudes and the reality of how secure documents are perceived and used is a much broader issue that requires serious attention from all of the stakeholders in the industry. The subject of protecting our identities across not only the main documents, but also moving towards a situation where all items that contain personal information can be traced and protected is one that needs to receive more attention than it currently does. This process is as much about education as it is implementation and legitimate suppliers need to grasp the nettle, supported by new and innovative technologies. Legitimate producers need to take the fear out of document security and instead use anti-counterfeiting measures as positive offerings for consumers - helping them to protect their identities and their personal information. Ingenia Technology (UK) Ltd 2012. All rights reserved 10