The issue of fake degree certification has long troubled Pakistan’s educational landscape, posing significant challenges to the integrity of academic qualifications and the credibility of educational institutions. The prevalence of counterfeit degrees not only undermines trust in the education system but also compromises the standing of individuals holding such qualifications.

In years to come, the ID and secure document research community will look back at the year 2024 with a hint of nostalgia as it fondly remembers the days of human- engineered counterfeits prior to the age of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled security attacks. The keynote address at the recent ODDS conference in Lisbon explained what we can look forward to.

The secure Hologram Image Register (HIR), established by the International Hologram Manufacturers Association (IHMA) to help safeguard hologram copyright and underpin the use of holograms in authentication and security printing, has been extended and relaunched as the Security Image Register (SIR).

The US administration released a three-part proposal on 2 March asking Congress for $1.6 billion to help provide federal agencies and local governments with more funding to handle pandemic-related fraud claims, modernise identity verification systems, and support victims of identity theft.

Onfido, a leading global digital identity verification and authentication provider, has released ‘Motion’, a next generation biometric liveness solution to enhance its ‘Real Identity Platform’.

As reported in Courthouse News Service, the US Supreme Court has agreed to examine what constitutes identity theft in a fraud after criminal defence lawyers say it is over criminalised by the federal government.

Hosted by Dubai Police, the World Police Summit will provide a platform to explore the current challenges facing police forces and the latest technology advances, strategies, and innovations across the law enforcement and security spectrum.

The almost unlimited access to high-quality printing services, as well as to sophisticated graphics software, has increased the quality of document forgery in recent years to the point where it is becoming more difficult for border control officers to tell the difference between real and fake secure documents.

Document fraud is one of the tools used by international terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and other forms of transnational crime. A tri-national meeting was recently held in Argentina within the framework of the EUROFRONT Programme on training and technical assistance.

The use of fake ID’s has for some time been linked with a whole range of serious crimes including terrorism and people smuggling as well as, at the other end of the criminality spectrum, less serious misdemeanours such as under-age drinking.