A first Digital Document Security Conference in Berlin from May 13 to 15 is covering the world’s move from paper-based to digital security and ID; and countering counterfeit and fake ID documents such as passports, driver’s licences and pass cards as used in crime and illegal cross-border movement.
The conference will consider the growth in contactless payments and smartphones used to pay for products and services, while several countries or states are adopting digital driving licences or ID cards, whereby a person’s identity is confirmed by their phone, not by a piece of paper or plastic.
The questions raised: how secure are these systems, and how much can we trust them when we can no longer use our human senses to assess them? Are they as well protected as the physical documents we’re so familiar with, or are they more vulnerable to criminal fraud? And what are the implications of the answers?
The conference will consider the interaction of the physical and digital domains in financial transactions and identity confirmation, as well as providing a stage for both communities – physical and digital – to showcase how their documents or systems are secured, and to exchange ideas.
Four sessions (The Physical/Digital Interface; Print in a Digital World; Smartphone Applications and Digital ID) will reflect the move towards digital, demonstrating how the domains interact as well as how digital systems – particularly smartphones – can be used on their own.
Ian Lancaster, pictured, associate at Reconnaissance International and co-chairman of the new conference, said: “We are living through a watershed period in how we manage what must be secure documents and secure information. So, this first conference of its type comes as a timely opportunity to engage in the debate and examine the most pressing issues as the transition from the physical to the digital gathers pace.”
Presenters such as De La Rue, Bundesdruckerei, Giesecke and Devrient, Jura, Surys, Veridos and other security printers and their suppliers will showcase. Younger companies and R&D organisations, including Thinfilm Electronics, U-Nica, ScanTrust, In-Core Systemes, YPB and Vesdo, will present their techniques to keep sensitive data secure.
The Fraunhofer Institute, Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences and the universities of Geneva and South will present papers alongside case studies from public agencies that have started issuing smartphone IDs.
For more about the event at Sofitel Hotels & Resorts, Berlin Kurfürstendamm, visit https://www.reconnaissance.net/digital-document-security/about/.
Before the conference, a half-day course will cover the physical and digital document security domains ahead of addressing if physical and digital approaches can work together.
