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The attacks of 9/11, in conjunction with a renewed focus on the sale of age-sensitive products and services to underage parties, have ushered in a new era of concern for reliable and cost effective identification techniques. Additionally, the persistent threat of asset and property loss from internal sources has continued to fuel the demand for identification techniques. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, more than 87% of corporate theft is committed by people from within an organization, and that over 75% of these crimes go unnoticed.
There are a number of ID technologies currently available that create an index, of people or of things, in which every person or item is given a unique identifier that stores and encrypts their relevant information.
These identifiers can take the form of a bar code, magnetic stripe, smart chip, radio frequency identification (“RFID”) or other storage medium. All of these technologies have varying capacity for storage and degrees of encryption. The magnetic stripe, while commonly used is easily forged, and even the smart chip, which is being widely adopted throughout Europe is both expensive and susceptible to falsification. According to the National Research Council, “duplication of a smart card, while difficult, is still possible.” The bar code, which has become the cornerstone of efficiency and accuracy in the retail, logistics, and high-end security industries is becoming recognized as the most cost effective and most secure form of identity encryption for a number of security and age-sensitive issues.
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