Question 419
Dr C P Mulder (FF Plus) to ask the Minister of Home Affairs:
(1) Whether it has been established that the new personal information processing system which she referred to in the National Assembly on 26 June 2009 has contributed to the safeguarding of passports in order to meet international safety standards; if not, why not; if so, (a) who came to this conclusion and (b) what were the details of this finding;
(2) (a) how much did this system cost, (b) how many officials have been trained to use the new system and (c) how much did this training cost?
Reply:
(1)(a) and (b) The new personal information processing system referred to, entails the upgrading of the passport capturing, and enrolment processes to ensure higher standards of security to the passport application process, by ensuring that potential fraudulent activities are minimised. That includes enhancements with the likes of live capture, biometric access control, and photo enhancement processes.
* The benchmarking against the international standards, as enshrined in the prescripts of the International Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and more and above, the known weaknesses of the document, convinced us that our passport security features require extensive upgrading.
There were various loopholes that inadvertently allow fraudulent activities with the passport capturing process, namely:
1.1 The two paper based photographs required with every application submission, allowed: (a) the swapping of photos of legitimate applicants with illegitimate ones. Photos of applicants were laminated onto the passport; of which fraudsters were able to remove, and paste illegal ones onto the passport document. (b) Photos submitted were often of poor quality, and didn't conform to the international requirements of picture quality, as stipulated in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
1.2 In effect, the Live Capture process was introduced to solve this problem. This ensures that photos are captured live onto the system at the time of application. That is, in the presence of the citizen, allowing recapturing, if needs be, to correct any quality and compliance, immediately, online, with automated software through digital cameras. Photos are digitally printed onto the passport. The applicant's record, together with pictures, is, then, transferred for printing to Government Printing Works (GPW). There is less intervention by officials, and this has resulted in minimising possible fraudulent activities.
During the transition from old passport system to the new one, the Department had to develop a solution (enhancement module) to deal with the bad quality pictures that were, already, captured in the old system which were not compliant to the ICAO standards. The enhancement module functionality was developed and introduced. This functionality enhances the photograph by fine tuning it, until it is at the correct resolution (colour, clarity etc). Progressively, the backlog, which was caused by bad quality pictures, has been reduced without asking applicants to have their pictures taken, again. In effect, the Live Capture has dramatically decreased the time to produce the travel document with a marked increase in quality.
Following these vital developments, we are in the process of rolling out the Live Capture system. Already, we have installed it in 40 Home Affairs offices, with one station, in each of them, and we are hoping to have more, before the end of the financial year. However, because of financial constraints, we may not have it in every office.
1.2. Users within the department, with the rights to perform activities, on the passport application system, were accessing the system using password authentication. With this mechanism, users would swap passwords, leave their workstations unattended, and, then, fraudsters would get an opportunity to tamper with the system. Even though, there was audit trail, it was not easy to link the fraudulent action to the owner of the password, as there was no conclusive proof that they, indeed, performed the transaction.
The Biometric Access login was, then, introduced for the passport application process. This solution uses the fingerprint authentication, and the Smart Card mechanism. Each time, a user has to perform critical functions on the system; they are required to authenticate themselves, using their fingerprints. The system does not allow progression to another step in the process, until authentication has been performed.
A non-repudiation database is kept for all transactions performed during the process of issuing passports; the specific user doing the transaction is linked, date, or time of the transaction. This is, in fact, admissible evidence in a court of law.
(2)(a)(b)(c) Cost of the Live Capture system: -R10 Million (for the recently completed 40 offices). Training costs are included. Cost of Biometric Log on system: R29 million (with 850 enrolled users), training costs are included.
Issued by: Department of Home Affairs
10 September 2009
