BILLERICA, Mass. - Viisage, a leading provider of advanced technology identity solutions, today announced that the Frontier Guard of Finland, a division of the Ministry of the Interior, has placed an additional order with Viisage to extend its identity solution at the country's major entry and exit points, including land crossings, airports and seaports. In 2002, the Frontier Guard of Finland made its initial purchase of the Viisage iA-thenticate(R) solution for authenticating identity documents. With this new order, the solution has been extended to include over 100 units at points of entry/exit throughout Finland.
Among other responsibilities, the Frontier Guard of Finland is accountable for guarding the land borders and territorial waters of Finland, and passport control at border crossing points, airports and sea ports. In order to effectively secure each of these points of entry, the Frontier Guard of Finland must validate the identity documents that are presented by citizens and visitors and for this purpose, chose the enhanced capabilities of Viisage iA-thenticate to embark on a phased replacement of the older readers in place. Since the initial implementation in 2002, the Viisage solution has helped with border control and the document inspection process by providing consistent and accurate verification of documents and automatic inspection of the document's data. Finland has also integrated Viisage iA-thenticate units into their national border control system.
"We have extended our document authentication solution in Finland based on the success we have experienced with the solution since 2002," said Mr. Pasi Nokelainen, Planner for the Frontier Border Guard of Finland Headquarters. "The solution provides us with an accurate document validation process, which improves national security without comprising the flow of traffic through our borders that is critical to commerce."
Viisage iA-thenticate automatically authenticates passports, visas, and other standard identity documents, by extracting features from the documents using multiple light sources including visible, infrared and ultraviolet. The Viisage iA-thenticate software checks for hidden security features and tampering, while capturing an image of the identity document. The core technology accepts varied inputs including biometrics, OCR, magnetic stripe, bar codes, images, and smart chip inputs.
"Helping countries like Finland secure their borders is among our top objectives. The Finland Frontier Border Guard has demonstrated leadership in the international community by implementing an advanced identity document authentication solution," said Bernard Bailey, president and CEO of Viisage. "This thriving relationship is a testament to our commitment to making our customers successful and we look forward to a continued partnership with Finland."
