HP, Troy alliance battles counterfeit

HP has partnered with security solutions company Troy Group to secure and authenticate enterprise documents in order to curb fraud.

The announcement was revealed at the HP Imaging and Printing Innovation Summit 2010, held in Istanbul, Turkey.

The two companies have unveiled a secure document printing solution that enables HP enterprise-class PCL5 LaserJet printers to print security features on information-sensitive documents to detect whether a document has been tampered with.

Marko Tarkiainen, vice-president of managed enterprise solutions sales at HP IPG Europe, Middle East and Africa, said that one of the biggest challenges that enterprises face is securing and authenticating financial information.

According to HP, many large financial corporations and government agencies expose their high-value documents to fraud through unauthorised photocopying, alteration or counterfeiting.

Tarkianinen warned that plain paper documents are completely exposed to these types of fraud and pre-printed security paper offers some protection, but it's expensive and labour intensive.

The solution prints a copy-evident pantograph, which reveals a special pattern when any unauthorised copying or scanning occurs. It can also print a watermark that prints user-defined data across the back of each document to protect against alteration.

“The HP and Troy alliance has introduced a security action plan to help enterprise customers plan to not only make sensitive data more secure, but can cut print costs by 30%,” said Tarkianinen.

“The HP and Troy secure document printing solution enables organisations to print high value black and white documents with anti-fraud security features.”

He said that any industry that is linked to paper communication needs to make sure that its printed information is protected against counterfeit. He noted that the solution is ideal for banks, government and intelligence organisations.

“Whatever you put on paper can be scanned and copied,” said Tarkiainen, “Troy uses a special toner and if someone tries to copy it or use a liquid to try and take out the text, the ink will melt into the page, destroying the text and showing that it has been tampered with.”