Authentication of travel and breeder documents

Authentication of travel documents (e.g., passports) and breeder documents (e.g., birth certificates) is important to facilitate legal movement of passengers and to prevent cross-border crime, such as terrorism, smuggling, illegal migration and human trafficking. However, it is time consuming and difficult to verify all security features, the border guards differ in experience and expertise, and it is hard to stay alert every minute of a working day. New (artificial-intelligence based) technologies can assist in the automated fraud detection in travel and breeder documents, which may lead to faster and more consistent checks. This paper presents five categories of new technologies in automated document authentication to overcome the limitations of current document analysis systems in automated and non-automated border control scenarios. The first category consists of techniques related to the verification of visual security features on the holder page of travel documents. This category includes the verification of KINEGRAMs and other Optically Variable features under different light sources and lighting angles, and the analysis of printing techniques. The second category consists of techniques related to the analysis of breeder documents. This analysis can be at detail level (e.g., investigation of stamps) and at tactical level (e.g., verification of a check digit in a document number). The third category concerns the analysis of travel patterns, using information from the visa pages in passports. The stamps on these pages can be used to extract a travel pattern to support risk assessments and to detect anomalies. The fourth category is an analysis of the border-guard inspection history based upon a distributed ledger and blockchain technology that enables secure storage and prevents undesired manipulations. The last category analyzes the electronic chip of a passport. The software analyses document signer and country signer certificates on the chip to detect vulnerable cryptographic keys and tactical anomalies.