New  techniques  for  IDs  that  counterfeiters  can’t  beat

Many years ago (in the 1970s) the private investigation and security firm that I was employed at in Toronto was commissioned by a very large architectural firm to design a fool-proof ID card for all its employees. The architectural firm had a number of contracts around the world and some of the buildings that were being designed by that firm were involving buildings or parts thereof that were restricted to the general public.

We were to design three kinds of ID cards that were classified as—prime security (green background) major security (yellow background) and restricted security (red background). We were to take our photographic material to the client`s major office and photograph all the employees from the president to the most junior draftsman with the appropriate coloured background behind each person.  

It was my opinion that simply having the colored backdrops was not good enough. They could be easily copied. Strangely enough, I found the solution while having coffee in my bosses` kitchen. It was his wallpaper. It had all kinds of squiggly lines and circles in it. The wallpaper would be hard to counterfeit. I told my boss what I had in mind and he gave me the go ahead to bring it into play.

I visited a wallpaper manufacturer and asked to look at their binders showing the various wallpapers they sold. I specifically asked for the wallpapers that they weren`t selling anymore. I found a particular kind of wallpaper that was no longer in the market for sale to the public and it had all kinds of squiggly lines and circles on it and it had various colours which included, green, yellow and red. I purchased three rolls, one for each colour. We then cut a sheet from each roll and tacked then to one of our client`s walls. Then the supervisors from each department brought their employees in to be photographed with the appropriate coloured wallpaper behind them.

We were aware that someone could possibly counterfeit them but from what I later learned, it never happened. However, that ID wasn`t sufficient enough for me. The ID was OK to see the photo, name and appropriate colour as the employees wore it on their clothes (breast high) but I wanted to have something installed that would foil the best of them so that no one who wasn`t permitted entry into areas where they had no business to be in, could get into those areas.  

I learned that there was a university in the United States that had a machine that measured the distances between the fingers of someone`s hand. I was surprised to learn that just as no two fingerprints are the same, neither are the distances between the fingers of every person`s hands the same. The machine was placed at the entrance of the dining room where only those students who were living at the university had access as they had already paid for their meals when they signed up as borders. I suggested that the architectural firm install the machines at the entrances of the areas where sensitive material was being produced.  

WOW! Those ideas (which were brought about by our client) are so old fashioned nowadays because what is being used now simply boggles the mind. If I was asked to propose a security system nowadays, it would be vastly different and certainly better. Comparing what we had in the 1970s as to what we have nowadays is like comparing the technique of starting a campfire by rubbing two sticks together to using a remote fire starter from space. 

Fast-evolving biometric technologies are promising to deliver the most convenient, secure methods possible between employees and others by using different parts of their bodies as ID in place of simply showing an ID card.

Biometrics is the science of humans’ physiological or behaviourial characteristics and it’s being used to develop technology that recognizes and matches unique patterns in human fingerprints, faces and eyes and even sweat glands and buttock pressure and size. Its applications in the financial realm are a potentially huge time and effort saver, but that’s just a beginning for the technology’s usefulness.

As technologies advance, the use of biometrics in everyday life is shifting from traditional law enforcement and government security to a host of more consumer-friendly applications.

Fingerprinting had been used prior to the beginning of the last century however fingerprinting and its uses are still developing rapidly. It is so advanced; even touch technologies that employ fingerprints as an identifier are already in the works. In fact, IBM introduced fingerprint scan pads for personal log-ins on its laptops. It could be applied also to computer keyboards so that only those with proper authority can use them. This means that unauthorized persons couldn`t switch keyboards and hope to get access to the computers. The next generation of fingerprinting is being developed to go beyond simple recognition to incorporate pressure sensors that can determine if a device is being touched by a live object or not, which helps with fraud detection. By using the touch device, this would solve the problem of having unauthorized people lifting authorized person`s fingerprints which are then molded and later made into a Latex copy which would fit over the unauthorized persons fingers of people trying to overcome the security system  in the lap tops and computer keyboards, 

Counterfeiters can even create a contact lens to copy somebody’s iris so it follows that eye identification by itself isn`t foolproof.  Recently I watched a movie where the bad guy cut out the eyeball of a scientist and used it to get into the science lab.  

Now the experts creating ID techniques have created a human barcode in which our sweat-glands patterns create a numerical reading like a computerized barcode.

A facial recognition system is a computer application  for automatically identifying of verifying a person from a digital image or video image or a video frame from a video source.   One of the ways to do this is by comparing selecte facial featuresfrom the image and a facial database.  Another emerging trend uses the visual details of the skin, as captured in standard digital or scanned images. This technique, called skin texture analysis, turns the unique lines, patterns, and spots apparent in a person’s skin into a mathematical space. All of us to some degree have spots or moles on our faces even if for the most part, they are hardly visible.

Face recognition is not perfect and the technique appears to be currently struggling to perform under certain conditions. Face recognition has been getting pretty good at full frontal faces and 20 degrees off, but as soon as you go towards profile, there've been problems. This won`t be a problem for people having to face the camera before entering a restricted area, however where a group of people randomly enter a specific area all at once, it can be a problem. Perhaps by also recording the profiles of people will solve that problem.

When I addressed a UN conference on terrorism in 2010, I suggested that certain inert chemicals of varying degrees of amounts should be included in the substances used for making explosives so that the explosives can be traced to the manufacturer. That is generally the practice nowadays.

If these modern techniques were available to me in the 1970s, I would have used a  simple coloured background without the squigglier wallpaper and then had incorporated a form of chemical substance in the paper or plastic ID which would not otherwise be present and is not obviously seen on visual inspection. The presence of the material could then be detected by a security machine by the presence and magnitude of a suitable property of the added substance. Certain amounts of the properties in the hidden substance would determine the level of security access of each and every employee of the firm. 

 The data feature would involve the incorporation of encoded information into the ID card data or image structure, usually into the personalization data, especially the portrait in the ID card. The term steganography, in this context, describes a special class of data features typically taking the form of digital information which is concealed within an image, usually either the personalization portrait or the background security printing. The concealed image may be made visible by the use of a suitable device which could be built into a passport reader. The concealed image may contain data such as the holder’s name and his or her security kevel which may be read by the security person using the detector. In more complex forms the amount of stored data can be significant, and this can be verified by electronic comparison with data stored in the contactless integrated circuit in the machine that is in the office of the security director.

I have what is called an enhanced driver`s licence. It is only given to Canadian citizens. When I cross into the United States from Canada, I don`t need my passport. My enhanced driver`s licence is suffice. That is because not only does it have my face on it, it has other particulars imbedded into the plastic card that identifies me when I hold it in my hand and aim it at the machine in the immigration booth. The machine can read the information from a short distance (such as when I am in my car) and enters the information embedded into a computer and since I don`t have a criminal record or am wanted by the police, I am waved through. A number of states in the US have similar enhanced driver`s licences for their citizens also.

Yes. They also have bum detectors. It is highly unlikely that everyone in a firm is of the same weight and even if some are, no two persons sit in a chair in the same manner and have the same dimensions of their bums. This would mean that special chairs would be created and the information about your weight, size and the manner in which you generally sit would be recorded in a specially built security detection machine and if anyone else switches chairs at your post or if they sit in your chair, an alarm would go off. 

 They already have voice detection equipment and I anticipate that some day in the future, personnel working at highly security places will receive calls placed to them randomly and when they answer their phones, their voices will match the pre-recorded voices in the machine. Remember this folks. You got this from me. Mark my words—this will happen.

 The eyes of security are on you. They can see your face, measure the size of your bum at any time from another room, listen to your voice at random, read what is in your driver`s licence when you can`t do it, even read the manner in which you use the keyboard of your lap top and keyboard. They will also be able to actually record what you are typing on your keyboard.

 The story in the book and movie, 1984 has passed us by. It is so far in our past, the techniques used in that book describing security measures in the future we could expect in 1984, currently far surpasses what the author, George Orwell envisioned.   Just think of it. Some day when you sit down in front of your boss to discuss your work, he will know the size of your bum and the manner in which you sit. He will also know if you are lying to him—the determination made by a voice actuator that determines the stress you are having while speaking to him, And he will even know if you ingested alcohol or any form of drugs; medicinal or illicit simply by your breath alone which will be picked up by a hidden machine nearby.

 I should write a novel titled 2084. The problem is, it wouldn’t be a novel. It would later be determined to be a historical text book on security measures. Isn`t science wonderful?