SAFEGUARDING IDENTITIES
Morpho, part of the Safran group, is through its e-Documents Division one of the world’s most important manufacturers of payment cards and identity documents. The company supplies passports and driving licences to governments all over the world and makes credit and debit cards for leading European banks. Joseph Altham spoke to Christopher Goulet, head of sales for central and eastern Europe, payment and ID documents, within Morpho’s e-Documents Division, to find out some of the ways that Morpho is helping to fight crime.
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he improvements that have been realised in telecommunications and information technology have made banking and payment more convenient all round the world. At the same time, these changes have given rise to new threats by opening up new opportunities for the criminal. The employees of Morpho’s e-Documents Division are the locksmiths of the digital world and work for the benefit of consumers and governments to stop confidential information from being stolen or misused. Morpho makes sophisticated identification documents such as passports that are designed to prevent forgery. For banks, Morpho’s comprehensive range of Visa and MasterCard products have built-in high security features that protect consumers from card
fraud. In the digital environment, Morpho fights identity theft with techniques such as encryption and the use of one-time passwords, thereby helping consumers to feel comfortable about making online transactions.
Chip and PIN By consistently investing in research and development, Morpho has established a strong position in the payment card market. In the 1990s Morpho was involved in creating the EMV (Europay, MasterCard and Visa) specifications for credit and debit cards, which are the global standard for the industry. Occasionally, credit card holders fall victim to a crime known as ‘skimming’. A typical example might be a waiter in a restaurant who steals a customer’s credit card details when the customer pays
the bill. The waiter then sells this information to someone else who uses it to make fraudulent transactions. Across Europe, the chip and PIN (personal identification number) system of payment has lowered the incidence of skimming by making this type of fraud harder to commit. “Morpho was a pioneer in chip and PIN technology,” stated Mr Goulet. “Germany has been used to chip and PIN technology for more than 10 years and it provides a high level of security.”
Passports A criminal who wants to evade justice or to cross a border unnoticed needs a fake passport. Governments therefore aim to provide their citizens with passports that will be difficult to forge. Morpho’s factory in the Dutch city
