Preventive Measures

Introduction

Each year in the European Union over 100 million goods get stolen, 1.4 million of them are cars. Most of the stolen goods end up on the black market and rarely (or never) get their way back to the rightful owner. The worldwide damage caused by piracy amounts to around 300 billion euros. This affects not only handbags, CDs and T-shirts, but also spare parts for cars or airplanes or medicines. These figures support the need for identification and protection of goods.

In the following we want to give you an outline of today’s and tomorrow’s technology to protect all types of cargo. Here we do not claim to be exhaustive. It’s much more to be the recognition and explanation of widespread systems and technologies and their future. Each measure in itself constitutes a good solution, but in combination with one or two additional measures to strengthen the protection factor is not linear but rather exponential.

Etching

This technology allows companies and individuals to encode their entire property with the help of proper identification marks, eg.cars, RVs, computers, bicycles or televisions. This waterproof and indelible identification marks to prevent the theft of goods and help international investigators to recover stolen property. It was introduced in the early 80’s. Their success lies in its simplicity. The identification marks are clearly visible, but unobtrusive and indelible. Each kit contains an easy to understand manual that is comprehensible for everyone. Computers and TVs will be marked with the personal information of the owner, cars are marked with the chassis number and / or license plates. This has proven to be an effective tool against international car theft.

In this application, the self-adhesive stencils are glued on to protected objects. With the brush, the etching paste is then painted over the stencil. Let it dry for 2 minutes… and done. With water you can remove all traces of the operation. But the unique coding of your property will be permanent.

Biometrics

The Windows logon for users is the first stage, which aims to ensure the security of enterprise at the desktop. A strict password management where the user creates frequently new passwords, results in writing down passwords to ’secret’ places. The ossibility of abuse, even with a reasonable password management, can not be excluded.

Biometrics become independent of log data and such for this reason in the desktop and the building sector are often used. In addition to fingerprint readers and new solutions to face recognition are offered. Application areas include large and medium-sized companies and airports, data centers, applications in medicine, to border controls, banking, in commercial and automotive industries as well as in the private sector.

The procedure of the digital fingerprint makes it possible to identify people quickly, efficiently, accurately and unmistakably, too. This powerful and easy-to-use systems to identify the person using a centralized management. As a basic technology determination algorithms using the number of finger grooves and the relationships among the various minutiae considered. In addition, new solutions provide the extensibility to multiple users, and save the possibility of fingerprint data is encrypted locally or in a remote database.

Biometric facial recognition systems are increasingly gaining acceptance because they provide a non-contact practice without direct contact or interaction with the person to be identified. All data are generated in real time and may be integrated in business systems (LOB) systems, eg. in the gaming industry, in high security areas (transport and safes) or in applications for payroll and personnel records. Current systems are able to recognize faces accurately and precisely record the biometric identifiers and register them.

To achieve highly reliable results, we combine this analysis of the extracted eye area with detailed determination of the facial features. The solution is thus not only extremely fault-but recognize faces, thanks to sophisticated algorithms with different head posture, hairstyle, glasses or tattoos. The so called “perturbation Space Method” is using extraction and matching of different views and expressions.

Holograms

We encounter Holograms every day. They offer an effective, inexpensive and not least an attractive protection against counterfeiting and tampering. Holographic security features to document the originality and authenticity of tickets, concert tickets, identification cards, certificates, loyalty cards, vouchers, branded products, security labels, seals, luxury goods, etc.

If you translate the word “hologram” from the Greek, reads much like “The whole thing.” Here, an object is in its entirety, then photographed with all the information about its spatial depth. This information is stored by the superposition of two waves in an interference pattern on a film.

Prefabricated motives offer themselves as a creative headline for advertising and promotion and are also well suited as a genuine security feature. Even holograms with its own theme are possible. It is possible to place company logos, lettering, Signet, emblems, etc. permanently transferred as a negative or positive phenomenon in a hologram.

Holographic techniques can be grouped as follows:

• 2D hologram. It is based on a two-dimensional graphics. All information contained in an image plane.
• 2D/3D. It is based on several two-dimensional graphics, which are arranged at different levels. This is a perspective effect is mediated, similar to scenes in the theater.
• 3D hologram. It is taken from a real three-dimensional model in 1:1 scale and is characterized by a realistic depth effect, which is optimized for viewing through intense, direct light.
• Dot-matrix. It is based on computer-generated arrangement of grid points. The dots refract light at different angles.

Today the automotive industry standard is Holospot. Holospot is the new security elements, which has developed by Tesa Heidelberg GmbH, a subsidiary of Hamburg Tesa AG. A laser writes the identification data, which are converted via computer in a three-dimensional image, the hologram, in which a square-millimeter Tesa-strip inside. It is possible to store letters, text and even photographs. Each item is labeled differently. All products – from the perfume bottle to the turbine of an aircraft propulsion, receives a kind of fingerprint. It is readable by using a handheld scanner. The basic principle were discovered five years ago by physicists of the University of Mannheim. They saved data in a normal strip of Tesa. Now the trick successfully works in a single layer film.

Micro Dotting

In the field of security Micro Dots provide effective protection against loss or theft of valuables. Tiny 1mm small, for the thieves eye almost invisible particles, so called Micro Dots, in an adhesive liquid on parts of cars, notebooks, craft, art object, etc. are easily applied with a spray or brush. After 24 hours the liquid is fully cured, transparent, resistant to heat, extreme cold, oil, salt, gasoline, diesel, fuel or cleaning goods. These particles are burned by laser marked with numbers, letters, or logos, which are assigned to the owner and stored in a central register. Thieves are warned that the goods are easily identifiable. If an object get detects, the tiny dot can be made visible with the help of ultraviolet light. It will not require a microscope to read the information, a simple magnifying glass does the job.

Are Micro Dots a blessing for gadget fans? The advantage of the new security concept, we see particularly in the size of micro dots. Once attached to an object, they are hardly recognizable and hardly to be removed. This allows also to identify stolen property after several years. The disadvantage lies in the moment quite clearly a lack of dissemination: a cell phone is stolen, the probability is zero that a policeman seeking to ultraviolet light for Micro Dots – except for “CSI: Miami” is at work.

The situation is different in the road sector: manufacturers, insurance companies, government agencies and the European Union working on standards for identification of vehicles, stolen property that can easily be brought in connection with its rightful owner. Per vehicle 5000 to 10,000 micro dots will be mounted. The likelihood is therefore great that we have micro-dotted cars. Already vehicles are treated with micro-dots in the following countries: Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South Africa. In New Zealand, and Taiwan Micro Dots are already required by law.

In the Netherlands, supported by police and insurance companies, pilot projects are existing in which insurers offering “Home Kits” to policyholders. Sensitive household equipment (laptops, desktops, DVD player, TV screen, objects of art, mountain bikes, etc.) is selected by the policyholder and stored in a central database. The selected items are not interesting as stolen goods and thus reduce the number of possible robberies.

RF-ID

RF-ID has become an important technology to identify, to track and trace commodities and goods. Even if it seems: The wireless technology RF-ID is not a new development. The RF-ID story began in the second world war. In the early 40s, the U.S. began a military precursor to today’s technology for the friend-enemy detection of aircraft and warships. Then the technology long eked out a niche and was mainly used for animal identification. Only in the 80s the application field of RF-ID expanded and the technology was also used for access control or ski passes.

Intensive research into RF-ID in the current period is explained by the particular innovation and automation potential of the technology. So far, complex and error-prone processes can be simplified. RF-ID products can be identified by receivers, without having to be taken in hand. This technology improves the efficiency of many processes in companies, for example in the control of the goods receipt or in transit of goods. Especially small and medium-sized businesses can save by using RF-ID and strengthening their competitiveness.

The RFID technology is versatile. Nevertheless, there is no system solution that is suitable for all areas. The selection of the most appropriate technique depends on the application context. Technically, the limited range of the transponder is through the antenna size, the used transponder and the transmission frequency.

Frequencies of 125 kHz (low frequency, LF), 13.56 MHz (high frequency, HF), 860 MHz (up to 960 MHz Ultra High Frequency, UHF) and 2.45 GHz (microwave) are in use. Which area is suitable depends on the type of application. Low-and high-frequency transponders are disturbances by water and metal, but lower than in the ultra high frequency (UHF).

• Low-frequency (125 kHz – 135 kHz) used in access control, animal identification, with immobilizers and in production.
• High-frequency systems (13.56 MHz) is found such as ticketing systems or library or in public transport.
• Ultra high frequencies (860 MHz – 960 MHz) used for eg. trading pallet identification.
• Transponders which uses the microwave frequency (2.45 GHz) used for automatic toll collection, and goods, container and pallet tracking and fleet management.
  

  The RF-ID technology is seen as a serious alternative to the currently used barcode. The EAN code, used so far for more than four decades, can only identify the article type, but not the individual product. And the code is not possible to re-write, which is possible in many types of transponders.

  Here the RF-ID technology offers advantages. In the “bunch” techniques multiple RF-ID tags on a pallet or a carton can be simultaneously read without physical or visual contact. This enables the area of goods receipt, a faster recording and posting of goods.

  Although RF-ID promises many benefits, bar code scores of so far with its worldwide use and low cost. With a share of 87 percent in the consumer goods industry and over 50 percent in the capital goods industry bar code is by far the leading identification technology. Also in conjunction with the barcode clear writing is legible, and are therefore well suited for manual identification. In addition, it can be easily implemented in different systems.

  Current estimates show the market development of identification technologies with a high increase in the deployment of RF-ID is expected. Especially in the consumer goods sector, trade and logistics the growth of RF-ID is visible. Even though the costs inhibit the rapid growth of RF-ID technology, an increasing market share is forseeable. Because mass production of relevant components will come soon in many areas, a higher usage of RF-ID tags are expected, especially due to the efficiency gains.