Passports: major changes needed?

The cyber threat landscape is evolving at breakneck speed, in an expanding and increasingly complex landscape. Municipal and government agencies, as well as businesses, simply cannot keep pace. We must recognize that absolute cybersecurity is absolutely impossible. The question is not whether our defenses will be violated, but when they will be. This is why our information professionals are increasingly turning to cyber resilience strategies.

Pierre A. Roberge, co-founder of SecureKey and member of In-Sec-M, draws a parallel between the story of passport resilience and that of digital identity. That is to say, the need to evolve according to market demands and realities.

“The first Canadian passports were printed in 1862 after the outbreak of the American Civil War, when the United States demanded more secure identification of Canadians wishing to cross the border. Its beginnings are modest, at most 30 to 50 passports are printed in the first With the increase in the number of lost and stolen holders and passports, the need to tighten requirements has arisen. Machine-readable passports were introduced in Canada in 1985. They meet standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). new passport format was smaller, and the personal information, photo and passport details were laminated to prevent forgery. In the special machine-readable area, personal information and passport details have been repeated in a format that can be scanned at checkpoints. ”

As ICAO has demonstrated with the development of passport norms and standards for international travel, we must work together to ensure that our regional and provincial identifiers are secure, and that they lay the foundation for a framework trust, or the citizen can identify himself, with the minimum of necessary information, and transact in a friendly and private electronic way, from coast to coast.

” The digital world is about to take a new step in its evolution, and cybersecurity will have to evolve with it. The issue will no longer concern only citizens, it will also concern their devices, with these infrastructures and processes. ”

The need for countries, cities or service providers to protect themselves and identify the people they deal with remains a proven and solid strategy against unwanted actors.