Ink and Paper Take Center Ring in Security Market

Leaving documents unprotected is like facing a lion without a whip. In the recent past, society has given end users and distributors reason to embrace security features. The FBI tracks fraud cases of more than $100,000. In 1981, 1,825 cases were reported. The figure skyrocketed 1,376 percent by 1991 when the FBI tracked 26,931 cases, says Eric Croll, marketing manager for Boise Cascade, a paper company in Portland, Ore.

The U.S. Government Accounting Office estimates $28 billion in benefits have been lost through counterfeit I.D.s, as well, Croll says. To prevent thefts, overseas companies that print stock and bond certificates are contemplating incorporating a metallic component in their products and installing metal detectors at their plants, says Ray Boufford, product development manager at Ron Ink Co., an ink supplier in Rochester, N.Y. Some suppliers and manufacturers even report people stooping so low as to use household products such as brake fluid and nail polish remover to alter amount fields on checks. Situations like these are particularly disturbing because the FBI doesn't usually touch cases involving less than $100,000.

Two main ways to make a document secure no matter what it's worth include using security ink and paper. Many distributors are most concerned about safeguarding checks, but other documents such as gift certificates, vehicle titles, event tickets, stocks and bonds, education transcripts and legal documents also can benefit from security features.

Tinkering with Ink
Many security inks can signal that a document has been altered or allow authentication of an original. Here are details about some security inks:

Chemical Solution Reactive Ink
These inks disappear, fade or stain when exposed to ink eradicator, bleach, water or other solvents. Used to print a background screen or in one area of a document, such as the amount field on a check, solution reactive inks don't require equipment to verify. Bank employees and others don't require much training since alteration is easy to detect. Criminals might try to alter an amount field on a check, a signature or other information using anything from bleach to window cleaner. Depending upon the type of ink, it either disappears, fades or stains upon alteration. Though these inks can be used for many documents to deter tampering, one application is for rebate checks. These checks are sent directly to a customer's home, where chemicals are readily available.

Chemical sensitive inks were rated by the ANSI X9B10 Committee for their ability to protect against alteration. They received a three out of 10 for protection against erasure and a seven out of 10 for reaction to bleach and other solvents.

Combination
Color copiers and scanners usually can't reproduce certain combinations of ink pigments, such as tan and gray. The reproduction will show only one of the pigments. Prismatic printing, also called split fountain printing, capitalizes on this. It is the process of printing two or more ink colors at a time from a single printing unit, giving the appearance of a gradual shift in colors on the document. For this feature to be effective, workers authenticating a document with this feature, such as a gift certificate, must be trained to know how the original document looks.

Erasable Ink
Usually used to print background screens, erasable inks provide a clear visual indication if someone tries to alter a check: the ink erases. A solid screen of light colors or tints is most effective, Boufford says, because erasure is more evident and screens are less likely to be picked up by a color copier. Erasable ink comes in a variety of colors, including fluorescent. One application is a restaurant guest check that includes the background of the amount field printed with an erasable ink. If a patron tries to alter the total by erasing it, the colored background disappears.

Fluorescent Ink
This ink, which is sometimes invisible to the naked eye, glows under either U.V. or infrared lights. Fluorescent inks are gaining popularity in part because of their covert or hidden features and thus the inability to reproduce them accurately on color copiers. Certain parts of a check, such as the MICR line, can be made to fluoresce, or the check can feature entire blocks of fluorescent ink. For instance, fake watermarks sometimes are printed in a fluorescent ink. Much of the world's currency uses fluorescent inks, and equipment like U.V. lamps needed to check for the inks is relatively standard in banks and financial centers, says Charles Cole, vice president of sales and marketing for SICPA Ink Systems Corp., an ink supplier in Springfield, Va. Visible fluorescent inks come in a wide range of colors, says Boufford of Ron Ink. His company offers fluorescent Pantone(R) colors. Except for metallic silver and gold, all Pantone colors can be made to fluoresce under a black light, while they look normal in regular light, Boufford says. The ASCI X9B10 Committee, which expanded upon security feature recommendations of the Financial Stationers Association that included microprinting, a padlock icon and a warning box, rated fluorescent ink a nine out of a possible 10 points for protection against office copiers, color copiers and laser printers.

Fluorescent ink is effective only in situations in which a U.V. or infrared light can be installed. As a result, popular applications include checks (including guest checks in restaurants), event tickets, gift certificates and other applications in which the environment they are used is conducive to having U.V. or infrared equipment. For example, most well-lit retail stores probably won't install U.V. lights, while a dimly lit nightclub might be the perfect spot.

Infrared Ink
These inks absorb or reflect infrared light. Infrared inks can be used to mask messages such as "real" or "original" when a box of black infrared ink is printed over the message. The message can be read only when the document is placed under infrared light. Also, the message itself can be printed in infrared ink (a covert security feature) and will show up only under an infrared light. As with fluorescent inks, the person verifying a document must have knowledge of the ink's presence and equipment to authenticate the document.

Penetrating Ink
Often used to print MICR numbers on checks (bleed-through or dual image numbering), penetrating inks permeate a substrate to show printing on the back of the document. Altering of numbers and other information can be detected by comparing the front and back--a task that requires no equipment. In some cases, invisible fluorescent ink also can be added as a covert feature to provide extra security. Penetrating inks can be used on cash register rolls to prevent customers from altering information to get more money back on a return. They also deter duplication of rolls.

Thermochromic Ink
Also known as heat-sensitive ink, it changes color when a person touches the document, exposing it to body heat. It changes back to the original color after it is no longer touched. Thermochromic ink is now appearing on some pharmaceutical prescription pads. "Doctors are using [thermochromic ink] to cut down on Medicaid fraud," says David Huckle, vice president of sales and marketing at Chromatic Technologies Inc., an ink supplier in Ithaca, N.Y. "Fraud [on prescriptions] is almost as great as the check industry." A small block of thermochromic ink can be printed on the right side of the form below the patient's name, address, age and date. Also printed are instructions that the block of ink will disappear when touched. Because no equipment is needed for verification, thermochromic ink also is used on retail tags on designer clothes to discourage the shipment or sale of "knock-off" items. A hidden message such as "original" or "real" can be printed in thermochromic ink. The message will appear when touched or rubbed, simplifying authentication of the original.

There are many color-change options, including blue to colorless, orange to yellow and red to colorless, Huckle says. A dual thermochromic ink that rubs through one color and continues to change to a different color when rubbed harder is offered by SICPA. Color-to-color change thermochromic ink is used primarily for direct mail, advertising and promotional materials, packaging, labels, educational and learning aids, stationery and other novelty pieces. Color-to-colorless thermochromic ink is prevalent on security documents, Huckle says, because a color-blind person still can distinguish a change and verify a document.

Many suppliers offer a security ink that changes color when rubbed. However, friction causes the change, not body heat. Similar to a self-contained carbonless coating, the ink is encapsulated and coated and requires the document verifier to scrape it with a fingernail or an object to uncover a message. Nocopi Technologies, Wayne, Pa., a supplier of security features, developed its Rub & Reveal ink in a joint venture with Georgia Pacific Papers, Atlanta. Unlike thermochromic ink, the ink doesn't change back to its original color. It also is chemically reactive, turning blue automatically or not at all when exposed to chemicals, says Jack Klumpp, sales and marketing director for Nocopi Technologies. Rub & Reveal ink is printed on documents, mainly checks, and can be printed overtly or covertly, he says.

Paper Parade
Security paper, a growing segment of the paper industry, can do almost everything but jump through rings of fire to signal document tampering and prevent alteration. Boise Cascade, Appleton Papers, Domtar, Georgia Pacific Papers, International Paper, James River and other paper companies are jumping in line to provide security papers. Many technologies discussed here, which are not all-inclusive, are offered by several paper suppliers, and some offer them on several types of paper.

Chemically Reactive Paper
These papers react to solutions such as bleach, brake fluid, nail polish remover, gasoline, kerosene, paint thinner and turpentine. When exposed to these solutions, the paper might turn a different color or display a multilanguage void message.

Security Fibers and Planchettes
Papermakers offer different materials that are woven into security paper stock. Both covert and overt fibers and planchettes are available. The covert features, such as fluorescent fibers and planchettes, can be verified with a U.V. light. Like fluorescent security ink, fluorescent fibers and planchettes provide a deterrent against photocopying and scanning because they cannot be accurately reproduced.

Toner-fusing Paper
This paper is treated to "grasp" laser printer toner better than normal paper. This feature makes it difficult for criminals to remove toner from a document with tape and alter the check amount or other information. This feature is designed for end users who print checks in-house with laser printers.

U.V. Dull/Dead Paper
Standard white 20# paper has fluorescence, says Croll of Boise Cascade. "People like it white and bright and that's what makes it that way." U.V. dull paper has most of the fluorescence taken out of it, and U.V. dead, or optically dead paper, has no fluorescence in it at all, he says. It's difficult to take fluorescence out of paper, says Croll. Therefore, it's generally not sold in office supply stores and isn't readily available to forgers, he says. Watermarks printed in fluorescent ink glow brighter under U.V. lights when they're printed on U.V. dull or dead paper because the paper isn't competing with them, Croll says. Domtar also offers an optically dead paper that includes chemical reactants, a true watermark and invisible and visible fibers, says John Langton, president of Toronto Metropolitan Paper Co. Ltd., a paper supplier in Toronto.

Watermarks
A few types of watermarks exist for document security. A true watermark, which is also called a Fourdrinier watermark, is applied on a dandy roll of a paper machine by pressing an image into the paper while it's still wet. These can be viewed from both sides of the document when held up to light. Artificial watermarks, which also can appear on both sides, sometimes look like true watermarks and are less expensive because there isn't the cost of a mold involved. Both watermarks are very difficult to duplicate. Artificial or fake watermarks can be printed in fluorescent ink so they glow under a U.V. light.

Future Security Fair
One obvious step toward the successful use of security features is their acknowledgement and correct usage by document verifiers. Educating end users and document verifiers about how to detect ink and paper-based security features is a task some suppliers aren't sure how to tackle. "We rely on our customers [manufacturers] to teach them," Croll says. "Sometimes manufacturers ask us to go in with them to hold a seminar for their customers, but the issue for us is the best way to reach the distributor."

In the future, replacing end users who verify documents with machines might eradicate the education problem, says Cole of SICPA. "Machine-readable security features will become more important," he says. "The issue most people are wrestling with is how to educate people to look for the features and who is responsible for educating them." Because a company with an effective document security program changes security features regularly, existing employees as well as new ones must be trained routinely, he says. "People aren't going to want to hassle with training humans when they can have a machine tell them if a document is good or not."

You shouldn't clown around when it comes to security features. Whether a machine or a bank teller is verifying a document, combining ink and paper-based security features usually is better than using just one feature. Including security printing techniques such as void pantographs and microprinting also is recommended. The more security you have, the less likely a crook is to tamper with the document, says Croll. "It's like a home security system," Croll says. "If your home doesn't have one and others around it do, you're more likely to be robbed because it's just easier to get into your house. Even if your [document] could be duplicated, chances are it won't be because it's easier to duplicate someone else's that doesn't have security features."

Reprinted with permission from Print Solutions Magazine, published by the Document Management Industries Association.