Vitalware incorporates security features designed to reduce the risk of fraudulent access to or use of a Registry’s records, including:
- Ensuring all and only actual events are accurately recorded:
- Corroborating documents from multiple sources are required to confirm that an event has really occurred.
- Double keying support for registration modules.
- Automatic identification of duplicate registrations.
- Accurate recording of name changes and inclusion of them on printed certificates.
- Registrations of new identities for witness protection can be added. New registrations can be created as if they had existed from the time one would have expected them to be registered. Certificates can then be produced for these registrations with older production dates and associated information (such as the signature of the Registrar at the apparent time of creation rather than the current Registrar).
- Ensuring only valid certificates are issued to authorized applicants:
- Proof of identity of applicant requirement before certificates can be issued.
- Alert messages which can be attached to any record for automatic notification whenever a record is accessed. This is useful for missing children and delinquent father issues.
- Registration endorsements, which can be printed on any certificate produced by Vitalware.
- Automatic matching of events of an individual, creating a "life history" of a person. In particular, death records are automatically cross-referenced to their associated birth records. Subsequent access to the birth records indicate that the candidate is deceased and a Deceased endorsement is printed on any certificate produced. Thus Vitalware can detect and prevent the use of "tombstone" identities.
- Extensive audit trail capabilities designed to prevent the possibility of internal staff abuses of the system.
- Verifying certificate details after certificates have been issued:
- A Certificates module records details of every certificate produced by the Registry. This information includes the user performing the operation, the date and time that the product was produced, the type of product, the candidate’s name (e.g. name appearing on the produced certificate) and, if secure numbered certificate stock is in use, the unique number appearing on the certificate paper. This is fully searchable and cross-referenced with related applications, events and security stock.
- Online secure web access by registered third parties (e.g. passports offices) enables authentication of Registry certificates and verification of details printed on them.
These facilities are largely based on rule sets and heuristics which can be re-configured, modified or extended by the Vitalware administrator.
Vitalware also provides a number of fraud detection scripts which are run across data and logs to try to determine cases where fraudulent activity may be occurring.