Rochford Thompson seeks to thwart corporate spies

29 September 2006

UK company Rochford Thompson has announced it is to branch out its operations by attempting to sell a repackaged version of its passport scanners to check security passes and documents at building entrances and security boundaries.

The company believes that the systems could play a significant role in defending corporations against commercial spying and terrorism.

Rochford Thompson is well known as a company supplying e-passport readers found at international borders – most notably recently winning a contract to supply readers to the US-VISIT programme.

The privately-owned company says the technology can be combined with other security systems (such as biometric security) and that the documents can be read quickly and accurately in a single scan (with one-handed operation).

According to ex Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad officer Brian Healy, and now Operations Director of business risk consultancy Haymarket Management Services, there should be a real demand for this type of technology : “Companies must wake up to the threats posed in the modern world. Identity theft and corporate spying is a huge global issue, yet visitors routinely allowed enter vulnerable companies with only rudimentary checks. Once inside, a skilled corporate spy with the right equipment and training can access secret or confidential information easily, and without their host or corporate ‘minder’ having any idea.”

Healy added: “Perimeter security won’t prevent that on its own – you have to have a range of security systems, and a security culture in the company – but proper document and identity checking is basic to any security system. The more difficult you make it, the more likely you are to deter the bad guys, or to detect them; the harder they have to work, the greater the risks and costs to them, and the less damaging their work will be. No system is impenetrable, given infinite resources, but state-of-the-art security technology on the front desk gives the good guys the opportunity to make a major step forward.”