Electronic passports contain a small electronic chip – an RFID chip – embedded in the cover that contains key information about the passport carrier such as their name, gender, date of birth and a digital photograph of the carrier.

Some electronic passports contain biometric information as well and require digital confirmation of physical attributes such as fingerprints and iris patterns, though the new St. Kitts and Nevis passports will stick to basic information.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security said the new passports will not only expedite travel for citizens between the two Carribean islands, but will also help prevent fraud and identity theft.

“The new document to be issued by the Government of St Kitts and Nevis is more secured and designed with specific imbedded features intended to enhance the integrity of the new E Passport and will facilitate more seamless travel by citizens and residents of the Federation,” the ministry stated.

St. Kitts and Nevis is one of the first countries in the region to use electronic passports.

“We are proud to be once again be leading the way in ensuring that citizens of our twin-island Federation are given an added layer of protection whenever they travel,” Elvis Newton, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Homeland Security told SKN List. “The new passports do cost more, but we are confident that nationals will understand the added cost of producing these digital passports, and will appreciate the expedited processing at various ports where they travel, when compared to those persons who do not have upgraded passports.”

Non-electronic passports are still valid in the region, though anybody requesting a new passport as of this month will be issued an electronic passport.

SOURCES:
SKN List: “New Passports Offer Added Security Features”
Caribbean 360: “St. Kitts Begins Issuing Epassports”

These passports were issued as part of a pilot project that began in 2009 to test the features of Canada’s new e-passports, which, to date, have yielded no problems.

Electronic passports contain a small electronic chip – an RFID chip – embedded in the cover that contains key information about the passport carrier such as their name, gender, date of birth and a digital photograph of the carrier. Some electronic passports contain biometric information as well and require digital confirmation of physical attributes such as fingerprints and iris patterns.

The new Canadian passports will not contain most of this biometric information.

According to an article published by the CBC, the chip on the new passports will contain “the holder’s photo and a country-specific signature that proves the passport was issued by the Government of Canada.” In addition, “the visible photo must match the photo stored on the chip, as well as the ghost photo printed in ultraviolet ink.”

However, the photo on the chip will allow facial recognition software to be used at check-ins where it is available, such as at London’s Heathrow airport who is gearing up to introduce facial biometric scanners at its international flight terminals.

The chip is an additional layer in Canadian passport security, Passport Canada said.
Initial plans were to have the new e-passport ready for the public by 2010 but this summer reports suggested they could be delayed until early 2013.

SOURCES:
CBC: “New E-Passport Price Tag Could Be Hefty”
Embassy Magazine: “E-Passport Roll-Out Delayed A Third Time”

The facial recognition scanners will be a second step in a security process installed at Heathrow. Currently, the airport uses the Atkins Passenger Authentication Scanning System (PASS) – a system that maintains passport security through low-level biometrics such as name identification, birthdate recognition and fingerprint technology.

Once an international passenger has checked in with their electronic passport – a passport that contains essential information such as the passenger’s name, age, sex, place of birth, nationality and, in some cases, fingerprints – using the PASS system, they will then be required to proceed to the facial recognition scanners to complete their check-in.

Using an infrared flash, the facial scanners will then take a photo of the passenger’s face and match the biometric information obtained from the facial scan with information contained on their electronic passport.

The scanning and verifying process should only take about 4.7 seconds, according to an article published by tech blog Singularity Hub.

More and more airports around the world are looking to increased biometrics as a way to make traveling safer and more efficient.

“There has been a drive over the past few years by governments – with e-passports and e-visas – to include a biometric in the travel document to make sure the person is the legitimate owner of that document,” said Sean Farrell, the Sita biometrics portfolio director during a webinar on aviation information technology last year. “We’re going to see biometrics grow very quickly from border management to other places at the airport.”

SOURCES:
Singularity Hub: “Heathrow Airport To Adopt Face Scanners To Screen Passengers”
The Transnational: “Experts: More Biometric Checks Coming To Airports”
Homeland Security News Wire: “Heathrow Deploys Face Recognition Scanners”
The Guardian: “New facial recognition scanners to be introduced at Heathrow”

“A proposed national roll-out of electronic passports in Canada has been pushed back for a third time,” according to a new article published by Embassy Magazine.

When the plans for a national e-passport were unveiled in early 2010, Passport Canada said they expected to have them available to the public by as early as 2012. Embassy Magazine reported this week that a new strategic planning document released by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said the passports could be delayed until early 2013.

Electronic passports contain a small electronic chip – an RFID chip – embedded in the cover that contains key information about the passport carrier such as their name, gender, date of birth and a digital photograph of the carrier. Some electronic passports contain biometric information as well and require digital confirmation of physical attributes such as fingerprints and iris patterns.

The new Canadian passports will not contain biometric information. Monique Bolvin, a Passport Canada spokeswoman, told CBC last year that Canada chose not to include fingerprints and iris scans, which weren’t needed to comply with the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

“Right now the ICAO standard is the facial image,” she said.

Currently, over 80 countries around the world use e-passports and Canada is the only G8 country that has fallen behind the trend.

SOURCES:
Embassy Magazine: “E-passport roll-out delayed a third time”
CBC: “New Electronic Passports Unveiled”

The ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that sets the standards for international air transport to ensure safe travels and orderly growth. In 2004, when countries like the UK, Australia and Singapore began introducing e-passports to enhance security measures at border crossings, the agency implemented a recommendation that every country convert to these kinds of passports by 2010.

The lag in timeline isn’t necessarily a bad thing though.

Because some countries have yet to adopt electronic passports, when they do, they are more likely to jump to the second-generation passports, which provide even more security features and ensure safer travel.

First generation e-passports contain the holder’s information in a small Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip embedded in the passport cover. This information includes name, date of birth, height, weight, age, etc – all the details you would expect to find in a non-electronic passport. First generations can also carry biometric information, such as fingerprints, iris scans and DNA recognition.

Second generation e-passports contain all the same information but are simply increased in capacity for both information and safety. Second generations have a more powerful chip with increased storage space (nearly double than that of the first generation’s), which improves processing speeds. The new chips also offer greater protection against unauthorized reading, only allowing access when synced at terminals.

“The high levels of security and authentication provided by second-generation e-passports translates directly into increased efficiency and convenience for governments and their citizens, with secure contactless technology helping to make passport-based identity checks simpler, faster and more secure,” wrote Adam Tanguin, Sales Director of E-Government for EMEA, HID Global in a recent article.

Though the globe hasn’t met the e-passport target set out by the ICAO nearly six years ago, the agency is still confident that the recent moves toward electronic passports are a step in the right direction to developing safer travel across borders for every citizen in every country.

“This represents a first step in bringing global state travel document systems and technologies more in line with 21st century border control, facilitation and security objectives,” a spokesperson said.

SOURCE:
Contactless News: “The E-Passport Revolution: The Next Generation of Travel Security”

Turkey will begin issuing biometric passports on June 1, 2010.

Though all citizens are not required to switch to the new passports right away, those who wish to do so can begin the application process as soon as May 23.

Turkey’s biometric passport will contain information about the holder’s facial features such as the distances between eyes, nose, mouth and ears as well as the passport holder’s personal details such as the holder’s name, date of birth, country of origin, height, etc.

All of this information is accessible to security officers at borders and airports through a small RFID chip embedded somewhere on the passport – typically on the front or back cover.

To retrieve the information from the chip, it must be scanned – in the same way a credit card must be swiped to access its information. Unlike credit cards, however, RFID chips can be scanned via no-touch systems that run on radio frequencies.

The overall appearance of Turkey’s new electronic passports won’t change. Standard passports will be red, diplomatic passports will be black, and special passports will be green.

Currently, around 5 million people hold passports in Turkey, and the country’s foreign ministry renews almost 2.3 million Turkish passports every year.

As of October 2009, over 100 million e-passports had been issued globally.

SOURCES:
Today’s Zaman: “Biometric Passports Set To Arrive In June”
Global Paper Security: “What Are RFID Chips?”

Acuity projects Europe’s market shares to drop in the industry from 49 per cent to 20 per cent in the next four years, but says the Asian market will experience the most market share growth increasing from 25 per cent to almost 50 per cent of annual market revenues by 2014.

The strongest revenue growth will bi in South America where the compounded annual growth rate will reach 117 per cent, and revenues will increase to nearly $US540 million by 2014.

The Acuity research also shows market expansion in Africa, the Middle East, and regions in the Pacific.

As of October 2009, over 100 million e-passports had been issued globally. With over 70 million new e-passports being issued every year, it is estimated that over the next ten years electronic passports will replace most of the 750 million passports currently in use.

SOURCE:
Security Document World: “E-Passport Revenues To hit US$7Bn by 2014”

To learn more about e-passports read some of our previous blog posts like “What are E-Passports?”, “What are RFID Chips?, and Fortress Paper Gets Electronic Passport Contract.

SOURCE:
YouTube: “New Zealand Passport Gets A Makeover”

Canada's Passport will be upgraded to an electronic version in 2012.

Passport Canada announced this week they would be preparing themselves for the launch of electronic passports in 2012.

Like many other electronic passports, the physical appearance of the passport will not change a whole lot. The biggest change comes in the form of a small electronic chip – an RFID chip – embedded in the passport’s cover. Containing key information about the passport carrier such as their name, gender and date of birth the ePassports will also include a digital photograph of the person.

Canadians will have the choice of the current five-year passport or one that is valid for 10 years once the e-passports are implemented.

Though the passports will be launched in a few years, the wait times for ePassports in the conversion process are a cause of worry for some. Back in February, more than 28,000 people in Taiwan applied for ePassports on the same day when the Chinese government decided to raise the fee for passports from NT$400 to NT$1,600. The Philippines saw a recent flood of passport with the looming summer travel season on the horizon receiving at least 30,000 applications since March subsequently doubling the wait time for new passports in that country.
But wait times prior to receiving an ePassport are balanced out by the speed and efficiency of passport usage once they are in the hands of the passport carrier. The RFID chips allow airport attendants or border guards to quickly process travelers and verify their information with a simple swipe of a scanner.

While all ePassports contain the same basic information, others can contain more advanced biometric information such as digital recognition of physical features like fingerprints. London’s Stansted Airport began using facial recognition technology in February introducing Autogates – a self-serve gate that scan the face of passengers and check the digital image against the bearer’s passport photo in seconds.

Canada’s new ePassports won’t have these kinds of high-tech biometrics, just the RFID chips with basic passport information.

As of October 2009, over 100 million e-passports had been issued globally. With over 70 million new e-passports being issued every year, it is estimated that over the next ten years electronic passports will replace most of the 750 million passports currently in use.

SOURCES:
ePassports: Will they improve the system?
Migration Expert: “New Canadian E-Passports To Be Launched”
Phil Technology: “E-Passport Processing Time Doubled”
Taiwan Post: “Over 28,000 People Apply For E-Passport In One Day”

A Short History

The grandfather of RFID technology was actually a spy tool for the Soviet Union. Invented in 1945, the device retransmitted radio waves with audio information. Even though this was a covert listening device and not an identification tag, this spy tool is considered to have paved the way for RFID technology because it was a passive device that was energized and activated by electromagnetic waves from an outside source.

In 1969, inventor Mario Cardullo introduced a radio-frequency device to the New York Pork Authority that was to be used in the transportation sector. Cardullo’s initial business plan showed that the technology could not only be used as an automatic toll system, but also as a security device.

Today, RFID technology is commonplace in the developed world. Because of their micro size, these chips can be embedded into many devices. This technology has particularly helped retailers keep track of products in the shipping and receiving sector. This video shows how:

How RFID Works

Serving the same purpose as a bar code or a magnetic strip on the back of a credit card, RFID chips are information carriers. And just like a credit card must be swiped to gain access to the information it stores, so too must an RFID chip be scanned. The main difference, however, is that unlike a credit card or a bar code, the RFID chip doesn’t need to be in a close proximity to the scanner and requires no contact with another device. Some high-frequency RFID devices can be scanned from a distance of up to 33 feet.

The information on the chip is retrieved via radio frequencies. An antenna puts out radio-frequency signals providing the chip with a means of communication and also the energy to communicate. When an RFID chip passes through the field of the scanning antenna, it detects the activation signal from the antenna. That “wakes up” the RFID chip, and it transmits the information on its microchip to be picked up by the scanning antenna.

RFID and Passports

Electronic passports are gaining popularity all over the world. As of October 2009, over 100 million e-passports had been issued globally.

What makes an electronic passport “electronic” is the RFID chip embedded in the front cover of the passport. The chip contains all the same information that a normal passport would contain – name, date of birth, sex, place of birth, nationality, etc – and this information can be retrieved by border guards or airport attendants with one simple scan thus saving timing and enhancing security at border crossings.

Some RFID chips in e-passports can also contain biometric information – a digital scan of a passenger’s physical characteristics such fingerprints, DNA and irises. In February 2010, London’s Stansted Airport began using these biometric passport gates (read “London Airport Introduces Biometric Scanners”).

In January 2010, Vancouver-based security paper manufacturer Fortress Paper announced a contract that would see the company produce approximately 2,500,000 unites over the net five years (read “Fortress Paper Announces E-passport Contract”), and with over 70 million new e-passports being issued every year, it is estimated that over the next ten years, most of the 750 million passports currently in use will be replaced by electronic passports.

SOURCES:
Technovelgy.com: “What is RFID?”
YouTube: “RFID Technology”
Wikipedia: “Radio-Frequency Identification”