– Google Searches for ‘ID theft protection’ have risen by 50% in the last three months
– Adam Bennett, expert at Digital ID, has revealed the signs that your company’s photo ID cards are easy to clone
A card printing expert has warned that poorly designed or outdated company ID cards could be making it far easier for criminals to clone them, and that most businesses have no idea how much information their lanyards and badges are giving away.
Adam Bennett, from Digital ID, said the design and condition of a company ID card can signal exactly how hard, or how easy, it would be to replicate.
And with Google searches for ‘ID theft protection’ up 50% over the last three months, it’s clear businesses are already having to pay closer attention to physical security.
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Fading print
Bennett pointed to fading print as one of the most telling signs that a card is vulnerable. When the image or a name on an ID badge starts to blur, or the text loses its crispness, it suggests that an ID card policy is either not being followed or enforced.
That alone tells a would-be fraudster that the organisation may not carry out visual spot checks, or in a worst-case scenario, not reissue such cards, meaning telling the difference between a genuine and cloned card might be tricky.
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Lanyard Colours
The lanyard itself carries more information than most people realise. Internal data from Digital ID shows that an estimated 35% of businesses use a black lanyard, 27% use blue, and 15% use purple.
For anyone looking to blend into a workplace, that kind of pattern is valuable. A fraudster scoping out a building only needs to observe staff for a short period before knowing exactly what colour lanyard to pair with a cloned card to avoid raising suspicion.
“The lanyard is almost a uniform in itself. If your entire workforce uses the same plain black lanyard with no security branding, no logo and no custom print, you’ve made the physical part of the disguise trivially easy to replicate.”
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Access technology
An access card using a magnetic stripe or unsecure technology offers very little resistance to duplication compared to a more secure card, such as a HID Seos card or MIFARE DESFire smart card with encrypted access credentials.
Bennett noted that businesses still running on older card technology are taking on a level of risk that has grown considerably as cloning hardware has become cheaper and more accessible.
Overall, the advice to businesses is straightforward. Audit what your ID cards are currently communicating, not just to your own staff but to anyone who might be watching.
To find out more about your business’s ID cards, or to shop a range of lanyards, visit the Digital ID website.
