Vaccine Certificates and Passports: Fraudsters are Gearing up to Rake in the Cash

Almost every government is talking about a Vaccine Certificate or Passport in some shape or form. To date, we have seen an entire spectrum of vaccine documents from paper-based forms filled out using a pen to electronically issued certificates and fully digital certificates with the promise of tracking the exact batch of the vaccine vial.

With a mad rush to vaccinate and issue these documents, regulators have overlooked the fact that many are still using outdated systems to produce and secure a certificate. If fraudsters can counterfeit an official passport document or birth certificate, how much easier will it be to counterfeit a vaccine document?

Fraudsters are now preparing to make a ton of cash with this new business venture.

But this predicament does not stop at fraudsters, it is going to hurt the wider community who rely on these certificates being authentic. Imagine for a moment that a fake certificate allows a worker to continue to serve in an aged care centre or at a workplace where people are considered high risk or fragile.

The solution is only as good as its weakest link and unfortunately the weakest link is a certificate creation process that probably came at around the same time as Windows 3.1 (approximately 27 years ago).

Governments and regulators must now look to newer technologies, especially if they are to gain the trust of other countries to open their borders again.

Singapore is one of the few countries leading the way with blockchain technology which offers a significant improvement in document security and traceability. However, like all closed loop environments, it suffers from an authentication gap that can easily be solved with a VeriDoc Global secured QR code. More about the authentication gap issue here: https://veridocglobal.medium.com/the-digital-dilemma-solving-the-authentication-gap-c7c22e87adac

For all other vaccine document solutions who are still exploring the next major technology upgrade, VeriDoc Global has made it easy with VeriDoc Certificates. This solution embeds a QR code into a document which points to the VeriDoc Global verification gateway and does a series of technology checks to verify that the document is authentic before providing the verifier with one last visual comparison check to ensure that the document is correct. The entire process from scanning the QR code to verifying its authenticity takes seconds.

Figure 1: POC for a Vaccine Certificate.

VeriDoc Global has developed several blockchain based verification solutions that provide full transparency to the document issuer and verifier. In fact, you do not even have to trust VeriDoc Global, a verifier could take the vaccine document in PDF format, run it through any SHA-256 generator and then compare this hash to the one stored on the blockchain. VeriDoc Global makes the process of verification simple for all users by adding the convenience factor of having all the verification steps available and accessible in one place.

The result is a process that uses a barcode, encryption hashing algorithm and the blockchain for verification purposes. This system has now been patented in over 90 countries and can be integrated easily into any platform via APIs in less than a week.

To learn more visit: https://veridocglobal.com

This article was written by Daniel da Silva Lay, COO VeriDoc Global.

This article was first posted on Medium.