Mexico In The News

Our Neighbor To The South

As the news of the European Union dominates our every day news headlines, there is one country which has eluded the escape of the media thus far.  And, as the title suggests, it is Mexico.  It is a land of both intrique, mystique, but yet has a ton of lawlessness attached to it.  And in fact, it has been a long time for me to see Mexico in the news, especially when it comes to Biometrics.  But today, that is all slightly different.  Today, I came across a Press Release in which it was announced that the Mexican government is taking extraordinary steps to help curtail document fraud, focusing of all things, in the automotive industry. 

The Security Vendor mentioned is known as “Pagemark Technology, Inc.”, and here are the details: “Pagemark Technology, Inc., a leader in document, digital information and brand protection solutions, including counterfeit prevention, authentication, and mass serialization, today announced the signing of a partnership agreement with Accesos Holográficos, located in Mexico City, Mexico, to address the growing problem of counterfeit in High Value Documents. This agreement will allow Accesos Holográficos to deploy Pagemark’s Pelta 2D based covert barcode technology in a wide range of security applications . . . Pelta codes are secure machine readable 2D barcodes which retain baseline characteristic and functionality of a standard 2D barcode while including covert features.”  (SOURCE:  http://www.findbiometrics.com/industry-news/i/9272/).

My Take

Sure, I have written a few times about Document security before (and even witnessed first hand actual solutions back in the late 90’s-yea, a bit outdated I know), but this is a rather unique solution.  For instance, rather than having to rely upon specialized inks, or even specialized reader document reader hardware and software, this solution even allows for Smartphones and Webcams to make the distinction of what is a real document and what is a counterfeit one.  Bar code technology is the primary technology here, although there was no specific mention of Biometrics at all (though it can be used, especially the Behavioral Biometrics, such as Signature Recognition-I think even the Physical Biometrics can be used here as well).

When I first got into Biometrics very early in the past decade, I remember that the critical issue at the time was with the entry/exit of illegal immigrants from Mexico into the United States, and vice versa.  Heck, I even remember when Lou Dobbs was at CNN, that is all he ever talked about on his nightly shows.  Really, to get off the subject, I sort of miss him.  He is about the only news anchor who could speak the issues the way they were, without any type or kind of political bias.  He truly brought some gut wrenching issues about illegal immigration.  And when I first started blogging, illegal immigration was also a hot button topic.  But now, it is Europe, most especially Italy and Greece which are pervading the headlines of today. 

Illegal immigration for sure will take a backburner now, as all of these nations try to resolve their debt crises.  My only concern is that with all of this in the limelight, illegal immigration will take a back seat, and the problem will only get much worse (if it has not already).  Back then, all of the presidential debates were about illegal immigration, now it is all about jobs and debt recovery.  It is really good to see the Mexican government taking some proactive steps in order to establish a sense of normalcy in the country. 

Obviously, documents are a very integral part and corner of every society, thus there is the strongest need ever to protect all of them now, especially when counterfeiting can be so easily done.  So, why can’t the Mexican government go one step further and try to implement this type of Security solution for its own passports and other forms of identification??? 

Remember, especially in the world of Security, the term “documents” just does not mean another piece of paper.  It is anything which confirm, or help to confirm the identity of a person who is traveling.  It can be everything from the traditional paper passport to the e-Passport, to even a Smart Card holding the Biometric Templates.  So, hopefully, the Mexican government includes all of this in their definition of document Security as well.