Scientists identify new weapon to fight fraud

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=585&e=2&u=/nm/20050727/sc_nm/fraud_dc

Scientists identify new weapon to fight fraud
1 hour, 23 minutes ago
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly all types of paper, plastic and packaging have
unique microscopic imperfections or fingerprints on their surface that
could be used as a cheaper way to prevent fraud, scientists said
Wednesday.

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The identity code is virtually impossible to change and can be easily read
with a portable laser scanner to combat the forgery of passports, ID cards
and other documents.
"Our findings open up the way to a new and much simpler approach to
authentication and tracking," said Russell Cowburn, a professor of
nanotechnology at Imperial College London.
"This is a system so secure that not even the inventors would be able to
crack it since there is no known manufacturing process for copying surface
imperfections at the necessary level of precision," he added.
Nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials on an atomic or
molecular scale.
In research published in the science journal Nature, Cowburn and
colleagues at Imperial College and Durham University studied the flaws on
plastic, paper and coated cardboard surfaces using a focused laser and
recorded the intensity of the reflections in scattered light.
Each surface had a distinctive pattern that remained even if the material
was mangled, baked, submerged in cold water or scoured with an abrasive
cleaning pad.
"The beauty of this system is that there is no need to modify the item
being protected in any way with tags, chips or ink -- it's as if documents
and packaging have their own unique DNA," Cowburn explained in a
statement.
The scientists are now working with a technology company to take the
product to the market.