The blank Passports were stolen last week from a delivery van in Manchester, and are estimated to have a street value of GB pound 2.5 million.
“Passports are accepted as the standard worldwide for proof of identity,” commented Stewart Hefferman, chief operating officer at Swindon-based TSSI, a leading supplier of technology solutions for the verification of both personnel and documents. “As such, blank Passports have a value way beyond their material cost and should be properly secured at all points of the supply chain.”
Hefferman continued: “Security is only as good as its weakest point. This is an example of a basic security blunder, yet the gut reaction to breaches such as this is to scrutinise the integrity of the documents themselves. To my mind, this fails to address the real issue. What’s required is a ‘Back to Basics’ approach to physical security.”
TSSI believes that the procedures used by the financial industry for Cash-in-Transit should be adapted by other sectors such as the printing industry. The movement of important documents and possessions such as credit cards and data disks also needs to be looked at.