The 2025 edition of Optical & Digital Document Security™ (ODDS), held in Warsaw, Poland (15-17 September), once again confirmed its position as the world’s leading forum for the science and technology of secure documents. The range of technical papers emphasised the strong cross-fertilisation across the sector, which makes innovations in banknote protection equally useful in passports, identity cards, driving licences and civil registrations.

Ethiopia’s new ePassport, designed and manufactured by TOPPAN Security, has been awarded the 2025 Red Dot Award in the Brands & Communication Design category, a prestigious international competition that honours outstanding achievements in communication design and enables winners to use the Red Dot quality label in their communications.

‘This is the dawn of the second decade in our pursuit of Identity for All in Africa,’ declared Dr Joseph Atick, Executive Chairman of ID4Africa, in his opening address at the Movement’s 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

In an article recently published in Securing Industry, Dr Mark Deakes, chair of the new International Optical Technologies Association (IOTA), sets out how optical technologies are spearheading efforts to protect identity documents.

After nearly two decades of delays, the US is set to enforce the REAL ID Act on 7 May 2025. This legislation, passed in 2005 in response to the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, aims to standardise the issuance of state identification documents to enhance national security. However, its implementation has been fraught with challenges, including logistical hurdles, political resistance, and privacy concerns.

During the lockdowns that typified the COVID pandemic, there was a roughly two-year period during which it was only under very special circumstances that a person could leave their house to visit a government office, a bank or cross a border. This accelerated the requirement for validating someone’s identity remotely. Of course, this ‘person-not-present’ form of ID authentication was prevalent and growing before 2020, but the pandemic accelerated its acceptance.

In just five years, TOPPAN Security has emerged as a real force in the global identity solutions market. Backed by TOPPAN, one of the world’s largest technology companies, TOPPAN Security has made strategic acquisitions and tactical moves, notably expanding its footprint in Africa. With the recent launch of the new Ethiopian ePassport, the ongoing construction of a state-of- the-art facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and the recent acquisition of Citizen Identity Solutions from HID, the company is clearly on an upward trajectory.

With the announcement this month from Microsoft that it has successfully fabricated its first quantum processor based on a novel material known as a ‘topological conductor’, the ID and secure document market faces a critical challenge: ensuring the security of cryptographic systems against potential quantum threats.

A new and alarming threat to identity verification systems has emerged, as researchers at iProov1 have uncovered an operation known as ‘identity farming’.

The annual Regional Banknote and ID Document of the Year Awards, a highlight of the High Security Printing ™ Asia Conference, took place in Bangkok, Thailand on 3 December. This prestigious event brought together industry leaders to celebrate exceptional achievements in design, security, and technological innovation across identity systems and banknotes.