Certificates - The challenges faced by certificate issuing institutions

Forgeries

Forged certificates is a major and common issue confronting the certificate issuing institutions today.

Modification of genuine certificates

Genuine certificates have their original details modified to relect new details.

Authenticity of paper certificates

Need an easier and more cost-effective mechanism to identify the authenticity of a paper certificate besides cross-referencing with institution's records. The ability to proof the authenticity of a paper certificate may be tested in court many years after issuing the certificate where records may not exist or the institution has ceased to exist.

Unauthorised creation of certificates using genuine stationary

Unauthorised certificates can be easily created if access to genuine stationary used to print the certificates is obtained.

Field authentication of paper certificates

It is often impossible to conduct reliable field authentication. Often the paper certificate in doubt and reference original certificates have to be sent to experts and specialized equipment used to identify authenticity.

Advanced forgery techniques

Certificates are easily forged and copied by forgers. There are two key methods of forgery;

• Redrawing where the forgers redraw the certificate producing high quality forgeries
  
• Scanning where a photograph or a scanner is used to capture the image to reprint the certificate, always producing a degraded forgery