Id Card Security Issues Via Lamination

The ID card market has changed over the past several years as affordable solutions have reached the marketplace. Today, someone can purchase an ID card printer for less than $2,000 that provides the ability to print plastic photo identification cards. Now there are other elements that are required such as software, digital camera and computer, but the solutions have definitely stepped down from being unreachable as far as price is concerned. There are several solutions that have been introduced to prevent fraudulent identification cards from being produced and we want to review a few to help you understand them.

One of the earliest forms of counterfeit protection methods is what is found on almost any form of paper currency regardless of its country of origin as well as on many of today’s government identification cards. It’s the line artwork found on the corners and borders and it’s called Guilloche printing. This methodology of counterfeit protection was developed when copy machines were not as sophisticated as they are today, during a time when counterfeiting required someone copying the details as an artist would copy a painting. Today with the advances on imaging and digital duplication, this form of counterfeit protection is just not sufficient; therefore there have been many new methods introduced.

Many of these new types of forgery prevention have had to do with the lamination that can be placed on top of an ID card. There are many reasons that this lamination has become one of the fullest proof methods of ensuring identification cards are original and nearly impossible to duplicate. Before we begin to discuss the different types of security placed into the lamination, it’s important to understand that presently there are only two companies in the global marketplace that produce this secure lamination technology. Each of these companies also allows the customer to register the lamination produced. This alone creates a barrier to duplication simply because of the limited sources. There are other facets that cause the technologies within lamination to be hard to duplicate and the cost barrier is one of them.

To produce a lamination for a particular purpose, a design has to be established. Producing this design can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 based on the technologies embedded into the product. Then after the design has been created and registered, there are minimum orders that must be met. Therefore, if you consider the cost of trying to duplicate an ID card utilizing this technology, you have to include the cost of the equipment plus the cost of getting a design created (if possible, because of the limited companies in the market and the registration of the imbedded marks) and then the minimum orders required to get started. Ultimately to produce a good forgery today, someone would have to spend approximately $20,000 or more US dollars to be able to do so. And again, that would be if they knew the right people that could even make something like this happen since there are presently only two organizations that produce ID card secure laminations.

Now that we’ve discussed the difficulty in duplicating the laminate and the expense involved, let me explain why the expense and difficulty. State of the art technology has been developed and embedded into these laminates including security features such as holograms, micro and nano text, laser visible imaging, and ultraviolet colors. Each of these items are available, each at a cost when it comes to producing your secure laminate for your identification card needs. Regardless of the initial cost, once these technologies have been incorporated into your overlaid laminate, you alone have the ability to purchase this exclusive custom secure design.

There are companies in the marketplace that have the ability to assist in designing your identification cards as well as assisting in the setup of security features such as RFID and the lamination techniques discussed here. One of the companies we should mention is www.FullIdentity.com: this organization specializes in producing photo identification cards for companies of all sizes as well as governments and government agencies. Some of the many projects they have underway include national identification cards for existing and emerging nations. At the present time they are unable to disclose many of the projects that have begun; however, they are stepping up as one of the leaders in the industry.

As many of the older technologies utilized to prevent fraudulent duplication of identification cards have become easily imitated, one of the best methodologies in today’s marketplace to prevent duplication is the use of highly sophisticated laminates. There are other forms of forgery prevention, but not many of them are as affordable on a per card basis as today’s laminate technologies. Who knows what the future holds, but for now, there are not many better or more affordable solutions.