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February, 2005
For Immediate Release
3M To Provide Passport Issuing
System for Belize
Biometric Fusion to Ensure “One Person, One Document”
St. Paul, MINN –
3M announced today that it will provide a highly secure
passport issuance system for the Government of Belize through the Ministry
of Home Affairs and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The
system will use biometric fusion technology to prevent multiple passports
from being issued to the same person under different identities.
“We are pleased to be deploying a state-of-the-art
system for the issuance of our passport,” said Garth Murillo, Senior
Immigration Officer and Acting Director, Immigration and Nationality,
Belize. “We believe the strong security that is built into our
issuance process will ensure our document is trusted at borders around the
world.”
The system will be built using the web-based Identity
Document Issuance System from 3M. Data capture will be decentralized,
taking place at seven sites across Belize as well as in seven Belizean
Consulate locations. Document personalization and issuance will be
centralized at two sites, and the passports will be produced using the
Personalization Solution from 3M.
The security of the issuance system will be enhanced by a
layered biometric subsystem. Facial recognition technology from Cognitec
Systems and fingerprint matching technology from Bioscrypt Inc. will be
used to rapidly check each new applicant against all applicants in the
passport database to ensure they have not previously applied for a passport
under a different identity. The combination of the face and two
fingerprints allows rapid automated searching, and a very small chance of
an incorrect match. The issuance system operator will be provided with the
results of the search, and will make the final decision on whether two
identities in the database represent the same person.
“Our issuing system customers around the world are
challenged with preventing the issuance of multiple documents to the same
person,” said Kevin Newman, Business Manager for 3M Security Systems
Division. “The government of Belize has taken a strong stand on this
issue and we are pleased to be providing the technology solution to support
them in their efforts.”
“We are pleased to be working with 3M on the Belize
passport issuance program,” stated Robert L. Williams, president and
CEO, Bioscrypt. “The inclusion of biometrics within passports will be
taking place in many countries around the world in the months and years
ahead. It will be critical for these governments to ensure they know to
whom these biometrically-enabled passports are being issued.”
Contact 3M Canada PR department.
3M, Scotchgard, Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite, Filtrete, Command,
Dyneon and Novec are trademarks of 3M Company.
Scotch and Post-it are registered trademarks of 3M.
Used under license in Canada.
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