Securing Identity in the Face of Geopolitical Forces, the BDR Perspective

The new design of the German eID card (see IDN September 2021) has given the card producer, the Federal State Security Printer of Germany, Bundesdruckerei (BDR), the opportunity to upgrade many familiar features to bring them in line with the latest technology and add some new high-security elements.

Duncan Faulkner.

At a period of transition within the ID and secure document industry from physical to digital identities, ID & Secure Document News™ (IDN) thought it a good time to find out from BDR about the improved protection that the new design affords the physical document.

Duncan Faulkner is a Fellow of Security Documents at BDR, where he has worked for over 20 years in various departments and positions gaining a thorough knowledge of all aspects of the security document industry. His current role is based within the German ID-Systems Business Unit, which is responsible for and oversees all the identification documents produced for Germany and for the systems that are in place to personalise the documents centrally or de-centrally as required by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community.

Q: Hello Duncan and thank you for reaching out to the IDN readership. Perhaps, I can start out by asking you about your life before you moved to Germany and BDR?

A: First of all, let me thank you for giving me and the Bundesdruckerei this opportunity to speak to your readership – much appreciated. As a proud German citizen these days, I did actually move to Germany from the UK on Reunification Day in 1990 and feel honoured to have been able to gain the privilege of taking up German citizenship, which I have held for the vast majority of the time since then.

My working background following my graduation from Warwick University (UK) and before moving to Germany, involved being a professional water polo player and coach as well as then carrying out varying roles in the sales, management training and information technology industries. Following my move to Berlin, I of course, first of all spent some time improving my few limited words of German at that time (such as ‘Ich liebe Dich’, and ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’) before working for a number of years in IT and multimedia prior to being invited to take up a position at BDR.

Q: Historically, there have been many geopolitical forces affecting identity in Germany such as the fall of the inner German border and mass migration. How do these influences effect the way you plan for ID document production?

A: Geopolitical forces have an effect on us all. For some of these changes, in depth planning can be undertaken. Of course, after the Berlin Wall came down and the growth of the European Union, we no longer had the obvious security threats to our ID documents from neighbouring countries. However, due to having been on the front line (or in the case of Berlin, an enclave in the eastern bloc) for so long, we have a great deal of experience on how to recognise perceived and hidden threats to document security.

Therefore, we try to plan for those things in our conceptual approach, which is undertaken together with the German Federal Criminal Police Office – the Bundeskriminalamt (BKA). In addition, all of us are also influenced by the decisions of international bodies such as ICAO as we saw with the introduction of biometrics and electronic components many years ago.

But, as is clearly obvious, not everyone’s crystal ball always works perfectly and some geopolitical changes happen extremely quickly as we saw in 2015, with the current ongoing pandemic and the previous as well as recent governmental upheavals on the international stage. Such things cannot be fully planned for in advance and thus one needs to be able to adapt quickly, be flexible and scale accordingly.

Indeed, as an integral part of our work for the German government, one recent example of this happened a few years ago. We were tasked with creating a complete registration and document production and personalisation system and were able to roll it out within an extremely short time frame by working closely together with our main customer the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, and the other stakeholders involved.

Thus, it hardly needs to be said, that for us the needs of our customer are paramount in our way of thinking. Relationship management is for me a key to being able to provide what the customer requires: high quality and highly secure ID documents coupled with robust and secure systems, delivered on time, in budget and working together in a professional and positive partnership.

Q: The new design of the German ID card includes some impressive upgrades in security features – can you take us through some of them?

A: The German ID card in its current form dates back to 2010, starting with a material and format change from a photographic process and a document size of ID2, to the use of a polycarbonate ID1 card. The new card includes a contactless chip and a unique combination of innovative inkjet, volume holographic and laser engraving personalisation technologies, as well as the use of special materials and high security printing.

Our approach involves applying the principles of continuous improvement for the benefit of our customers, our products, our people and our processes. The recent upgrades came about by internal and external teamwork together with, and benefiting from, the skills of one of the world leading voices in the field of ID documents, Dr Uwe Seidel of the BKA, as well as the expertise of Dr Ulrich Schneider and Dr Anna Wandschneider together with their colleagues in the Department of Documents and ID Systems at the BKA.

The quintessence of our approach for the timing of this particular upgrade, which is very much in line with the changes required by the recent EU regulations, has involved making a number of steps forward in upgrading the ID card.

The Identigram® Overlay now has updated and new innovative design elements as well as the inclusion of a third colour (blue) for particular elements, adding to the existing colours of red and green (which depict for example the 3D German eagle in red and the Holographic Shadow Picture HSP® in green, amongst others).

We also have taken the opportunity to upgrade the embedded security thread on the reverse of the card in line with the passport and the residence permit card.

In addition, of course, we have added the EU flag and enabled the inclusion of compulsory fingerprints stored securely in the contactless chip as prescribed by the EU regulation.

Last but not least, we have also introduced another new cutting-edge innovation for the InnosecFusion® personalisation of the holder’s portrait, which was added to the IR²® feature which can already be found on the latest German EU electronic residence permit. With this innovation, the contours of the holder’s portrait are enhanced with an additional invisible but UV luminescent white ink (UVP+) at the time of personalisation, which can then be verified by a document examiner or automated authentication equipment, in order to help detect fraudulent manipulation in the facial area.

Q: The eID function of the card is equally impressive. How is the physical document integrated with the eID function of the card?

A: The eID function goes hand in hand and coexists together with the physical document and, as is well known, the holder’s data is stored on and in the card, which can be verified using analogue and electronic methods. My personal belief is that it is and will remain vital for the eID function to be anchored to a physical security document, which has to be produced specifically for the purpose of identification.

Q: With more and more identity validation for travel, financial and government services going online, what was seen as the need to upgrade physical security on the ID card?

A: Our approach involved keeping the advantages found with physical document security by enhancing the afore-mentioned technologies and features with the latest innovations at the cutting edge in our fields of expertise. Using this approach, we aim to stay well ahead of the counterfeiters and forgers and thus the updated ID Card is designed to be enhanced further, both electronically and physically, as needed in the future.

I firmly believe that the combination of analogue and digital worlds together is the best form of protection that our identities can have.

Q: BDR has been producing the German ID card for many years, charting the transition from physical to digital identity. What are the biggest shifts you have witnessed in that transition?

A: At BDR, we have been involved in the digitisation and the digitalisation aspects centred around security documents, systems and the identity concept involved even before the turn of the century. Other shifts have been the move towards the use of ID documents with electronic components and more recently, this has involved the development of the eID function.

We have and continue to provide the complete chain of services needed, such as enrolment, secure data transmission, high security document production and personalisation, Trust Centre capabilities for data protection and verification devices.

One of the next steps in improving the usability of eID cards is the development of Smart or Smarter ID combining the eID function with smart devices to access and identify oneself for online services. As the needs of society and our customers change, we evolve the solutions necessary to support them.

Q: Carrying on from that, what do you see as the most important trends for the identity card of the future?

A: As the recommendation goes: ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket!’ Of course, our lives and our interaction with the world are vastly interrelated and interdependent. However digital ‘ease of use’ mostly involves a reduction of the level of the protection mechanisms involved and a weakening of security and reliability.

I personally feel that our identities are far too sensitive to be left solely to the inclinations of uncontrolled, or stock market driven, private companies who create mass-market products and are driven by profit. An identity needs to be secured with a layered approach built on the roots and foundations found in proven security identification documents, which also are able to physically protect the electronic elements and held specifically for that purpose. This way our identities can keep the advantages and security of what both the analogue and digital worlds can offer and should remain in our hands.

Furthermore, the interoperability of devices in the identification and verification fields will be one of the next main issues to be solved.

Q: Like many other established security printers, the Bundesdruckerei promotes itself, these days, way beyond the traditional services of printing and personalisation. What are the main areas in the expanding digital security sector that the company is focusing on?

A: Besides the aspects of ‘Smarter eID’, Self-Sovereign Identities, as well as ‘Identification as a Service’ in the digital security sector, we are also working on the possible use of evaluating and possibly incorporating further digital aspects and technologies in our fields of expertise. We expect that we will continue to be able to offer our customers the products and services they require, in the best possible way, in order to be able to support those that they serve.

In this way, we try to do our part in working together with our customers, all of our stakeholders, as well as the relevant international bodies to protect our identities, which are paramount to enable our societies to function successfully.

Finally, I would like to thank IDN for this interview and the chance to reach out to its readership.