CSC Enables Italy to Lead Europe in High-Tech Border Security

As travel and immigration to the European Union increase each year, member countries are actively pursuing ways to better equip border control and immigration officers with the latest tools to keep unwanted visitors out. In Italy, millions of identity alien documents are shown at hundreds of checkpoints monthly. Officers often compete with sophisticated criminals who can produce quality counterfeit visas and passports using the latest computer, scanning and digital photography technology.

In response to this challenge, Italy's Ministry of Interior and CSC have developed Europe's most comprehensive document scanning and biometric identification border control system to stem the tide.

Securing the Republic

Since 2005, a CSC team has been working with the ministry to build a systems integration project called Sistema Informativo Frontiere (SIF) to help screen the growing number of visitors from Africa, Asia and the Middle East, where many counterfeit documents originate.

The automated system uses a scanner and biometric technology to verify incoming documents. The technology is able to quickly check the admissibility of the document holder to the Italian territory by verifying the authenticity of the document presented while simultaneously performing a criminal background check.

Examining the document

The verification process begins with a 3M passport reader that utilizes an optical scanner and infrared and ultraviolet light to read documents. Once scanned, the system compares the embedded security elements in the given document ─ often invisible to the human eye ─ to the official sample in the database.

A biometric fingerprint scanner then collects the alien's print and compares it to the one on the document. If the document contains an electronic chip, the system will extract the data and perform an additional match to the data read from the scanner.

An interface shows a summary of the results; details of any fraud attempts are then sent across the network to other border posts in Italy. The final decision to pass the document and its holder is indicated on the screen and must be confirmed by the officer.

Realizing value for the customer

In addition to security, SIF improves back-office functions by reducing paper documents with an electronic workflow. It can produce detailed statistics of immigration and the use of scanning reduces typos in the processing of a person's data when foreign names are difficult to read and write.

The system can also work on local databases. This is particularly applicable at remote border posts that must be able to operate when a network connection to the central service is unavailable. The architecture makes maintaining, implementing and modifying new features easier and less expensive. It also allows hardware upgrades for scanners, RFID and smart card readers to be integrated in days instead of weeks.

The Border Control System received a 2007 Award for Technical Excellence, CSC's top honor for innovation, sponsored by the Leading Edge Forum, which provides technology thought leadership for CSC.