The Canadian government has gone to great lengths to help you with identity theft protection. The security measures that they provide begin with their ID cards. Here are some ways in which government ID card identity theft protection capabilities protect us every day:
Passports
PassportsThe new generation of Canadian passports was released in 2013 with a great deal of fanfare — and with good reason. We absolutely love the bevy of features that these ID cards come with. These security features are so high-tech, in fact, that the Canadian government also upgraded the passport’s name to the ePassport.
Smart chip technology
Instead of important personal information easily being a counterfeited page, it is also stored on an encrypted chip. This redundancy makes everything much more difficult to copy.
Data skimming prevention
One of the most popular ways to steal personal information is by way of data skimming, wherein a thief uses a scanning device to steal the data contained within the waves that modern ID cards emit. ePassports prevent this by requiring someone to input the physical information on page 2 of the passport in order to access the information on the chip. As an added measure, the scan range is also shortened to 10 centimetres.
UV image authenticity verification
Modern Canadian passports include a photo that glows with a specific array of colours and added images when held under a UV light. This prevents use of a fake passport, no matter how good the thief holding it is at stealing information.
Ontario personal ID cards
Visual patterns
Ontario personal ID cards aren’t arbitrarily pretty. The holograms and images are all identity theft protection measures. When security personnel are given an ID card that doesn’t have the correct array of visual features, they immediately know that it is fake. The holographic overlay also makes altering the image or other information on the ID card virtually impossible.
Micro text
It is very difficult to precisely print on the edge of any document, let alone an ID card, without a capable ID card printer. The Canadian government knows this; that is why all ID cards come with a micro text border of the stylized trillium of the Ontario logos on the left side of the card.
UV image authenticity verification
The modern ID card is another government ID card in which unique images can only be viewed under a UV light.
*all government ID cards include additional security features that the government has not yet revealed
Can a non-government organization create ID cards as secure as those the government produces?
Yes. The government is not the only organization that uses the security features listed above. We regularly help businesses, schools, libraries, etc. to create ID cards with the security features they need to protect employees, public members, assets and facilities. All you need to do is invest in the right ID card materials and printers.
With these tools, you could easily print detailed information on both sides of an ID card, while also embedding an encrypted smart chip. Also, the size of your organization will never be a problem, because we provide ID card printers that can print thousands of highly secure ID cards in a single day.
Join the Canadian government’s fight against identity theft
By protecting your own ID cards from fraudulent copying or alteration, you are by extension protecting the identities of yourself, your students/employees and your organization itself. To learn more about how to produce secure ID cards that match the capabilities of government ID cards, contact our team today.