Datacard Group Provides Enhanced Security and Personalization Solutions to Passport Canada
October 2013 by Marc Jacob
Datacard Group announced that they have been selected by Canadian Bank Note Company Limited (CBN), a leader in secure documents and systems, to deliver passport printer technology to Passport Canada (PPTC) for the issuance of highly secure citizen passports.
As the contract holder CBN is the organization responsible for the design and development of the overall technical solution including the personalization software, cryptographic components and the design and manufacture of the next generation electronic passport. Datacard Group was selected by CBN to provide the passport personalization equipment for both central issuance and regional issuance as well as a secure thin film overlay with innovative overt and covert security elements used to protect variable data on passports.
By utilizing the Datacard and CBN solutions, PPTC will be able to securely issue over four million passports per year, and offer citizens six passport types, including e-passports for enhanced security.
For central issuance, PPTC will be utilizing the Datacard® PB6500™ passport issuance system, which is an automated inline high-volume passport production system that offers a flexible, modular design. This enables organizations to start with the most cost-effective configuration for their program, then incorporate new technologies as they become available and as needs change. In addition, the system offers Level 1, 2 and 3 security features for passports and e-passports and can handle a complete line of personalization technologies, multi-level hardware, software and data security.