Security Document World speaks to secunet's Head of Division Homeland Security, Marco Breitenstein, speaks on topics such as how border control solutions will evolve over the next five years.How does secunet expect border control solutions to evolve over the next five years?One of the key developments is in automation – both in terms of eGates as well as Automated Passport Control (APC) kiosks. This means the traveller no longer interacts with an official, but uses border control solutions autonomously. This is reducing costs and helping to free up border officials to focus on the small percentage of travellers that they are suspicious about.Introducing APC kiosks presents new challenges and opportunities for border authorities. They can be placed anywhere in the airport and travellers can use them without personnel on site. As a result, security levels at the kiosk need to be raised so that robust Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) is carried out.It's only natural that, in addition to the move towards automation, we're seeing a rise in the use of mobile technology. Mobility has a role to play in many areas. An eID card is handy, but if you have a digital representation of it on your mobile device, you can simply leave the card at home or at a safe place such as a hotel safe (when the person is travelling). Additionally, border control officials will increasingly use mobile devices and equipment to make identity checks on the move. This technology is being adopted both for traditional airport border control scenarios as well as at the land borders that we see between many countries, such as the US and Canada or Poland and Belarus.Biometric technology has come of age in the border control sector, and we expect solutions to take a more multimodal approach in the future. So far, people are usually checked with just one form of biometric, such as the face or fingerprint. However, there are many cases in which the verification of just the one type is insufficient or impractical, such as when an individual has an injury or abrasion that prevents them from using a certain type of biometric device, such as a fingerprint scanner. More user groups benefit from multimodal verification systems, and with a good combination of several biometric features, it's possible to increase the accuracy of the technology. Furthermore, by registering multiple types of biometric, it is possible to create flexible border control scenarios so that, depending on the current alert level and threat assessment, controls can be carried out with fewer features when high throughput and low security are required, or more modalities can be checked during periods of higher alert.In the future, there will be a shift in the timing and location of border control procedures. We're already seeing controls being shifted into other areas, something that's being driven by the US where passenger data is raised before a traveller even reaches a physical border through Passenger Name Records, API and ESTA. Airlines are increasingly transmitting information to the destination country before a flight departs. We can also expect to see border control staff from a destination country provided in the departure country so that the boundary moves to the home country. All these developments could result in pre-clearance before a trip becoming a possibility – this makes the journey not only safer, but also more convenient.There will also be many changes due to the increasing use of eIDs. Background systems must be able to process large numbers of documents, and that must not be neglected. eID and biometrics have a lot of potential. But to be used effectively, appropriate infrastructure is essential, for example, a PKI.Why are airports and other ports of entry increasingly turning to automated solutions?As more people take to the skies or travel cross-border for work or pleasure, it makes sense for the authorities to roll out automated systems. Border controls are often operating close to their capacity limits, and it's not easy to constantly alter personnel levels to handle the growth in passenger numbers and the fluctuations in traffic. Look at your local airport and consider how many passengers and aircraft it now has to cope with. There's not always enough space to build the necessary extra infrastructure at an airport, so speeding up passenger throughput using automation makes sense. Machines and computers can support border control staff in the same space, without requiring major construction work.What's also interesting is that airports are gaining a competitive advantage by deploying the technology, as they are demonstrating to the travelling public that they can provide both comfort and fast processing times, ensuring quick border entry and short waiting times.This trend isn't limited to airports; we're also seeing similar drivers encouraging sea ports and land borders to adopt automated solutions."Will biometrics be linked to immigration authorities' databases?If biometric data is stored in an eID document, it's not really necessary to build large databases. In the EU, as a rule, both the facial image and two fingerprints are stored in the ePassport. If the traveller is checked at the border control, their live image can be compared with the information stored in the electronic travel document. Thus for EU nationals no linking of biometrics to EU imigration authorities' databases is needed.However for third country nationals such databases are already in use (e.g. VIS) and an extension is being discussed as part of the Smart Borders initiative of the European Commission.The Smart Borders programme is a European Commission initiative with the aim of making entry to and exit from Europe more efficient for non-EU citizens. The external Schengen borders are to be equipped with an intelligent Entry/Exit System (EES) that will improve control procedures and therefore increase security and convenience. This should also make crossing the border quicker for trustworthy frequent travellers.secunet has been providing support to the German authorities in the implementation of the European Commission's Smart Borders pilot project. The joint project of the German Federal Police, the German Federal Office for Information Security and the German Federal Office of Administration aims to demonstrate how new technologies can optimise the border control management of the external Schengen borders."Will challenges around people movements in the EU impact on border control trends?The first step is to distinguish between regular and irregular movements. As the number of tourists and business travellers increases, this has an impact on border control and its associated processes. But the activities of irregular travellers, for example, refugees, have an influence on the systems and processes, too. This could mean the equipment needs to be made more flexible and mobile for identification and enrolment purposes. But you also have to consider how you use the technology both for traditional inland border crossings as well as at unofficial locations along a country's border where people may cross.Many people move within Europe but do not pass through regular border checkpoints. This provides challenges for infrastructure when people have to be registered at unofficial locations. If all refugees passed border controls at airports, it would take a long time to process their registration and entry, but the necessary infrastructure would be available and could be used for this purpose. So authorities need somehow to deploy the infrastructure to deal with this challenge.These movements affect thinking at an EU level. The structure of border control also has to be considered at a transnational level, including the role that Frontex should play. The typical heterogeneous IT environment needs to be adapted so that a person who, for example, was first recorded in Greece, does not have to be recorded again when they arrive in Germany. This means that central systems and some of the processes used across Europe have to be aligned.Nevertheless freedom of movement within Europe should be affected as little as possible.
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