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Identity security

Identity security is central to Australia’s national security, law enforcement and economic interests, and vital in protecting Australian citizens from the theft or misuse of their identities.

The misuse of false or stolen identities underpins terrorist and criminal activity. It also undermines border and citizenship controls and efforts to combat the financing of crime and terrorism. It is essential to Australia’s security and economic interests that the identities of persons accessing government services, benefits, official documents and positions of trust, can be accurately verified. Also, the victims of identity theft bear significant financial and emotional costs in regaining their identity and credit ratings.

The Australian Government is working to improve identity security, combat identity crime and protect the identities of Australians from being used for illegal purposes. Current initiatives include:

• The National Identity Security Strategy
• The National Document Verification Service (DVS)
• The ID Theft Kit

National Identity Security Strategy

In April 2005, the Australian Government announced the National Identity Security Strategy (the Strategy) to combat the misuse of stolen or assumed identities in the provision of government services. To support development of the Strategy, the Australian Government allocated funding of $5.9m over two years in the 2005 – 06 Budget, including funding for a pilot document verification service (DVS).

The Strategy is based on a cross-jurisdictional, whole-of-government approach to maximise its effectiveness and inter-operability across all governments.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) considered identity security at its special meeting on Counter-Terrorism on 27 September 2005. COAG agreed to the development and implementation of a national identity security strategy, underpinned by an inter-governmental agreement (IGA). COAG also agreed to:

• the development and implementation of a national document verification service to combat the misuse of false and stolen identities, and
• investigate the means by which reliable, consistent and nationally inter-operable biometric security measures could be adopted by all jurisdictions.

A governance framework was set up to guide and progress the Strategy, including development of the IGA. The National Identity Security Coordination Group is a high level group consisting of representatives from central agencies of the Australian and State and Territory governments, the Council of Australasian Registrars for Births, Deaths and Marriages, Austroads and the Privacy Commissioner.

The Commonwealth Reference Group on Identity Security comprises 31 Australian government agencies, and was formed to ensure the cross-government initiatives at the Commonwealth level relating to identity security align with the Strategy.

Five working groups were established to take forward the principal elements of the Strategy. These five working groups focused on:

• Standard framework for Proof of Identity (POI) and Enrolment Processes
• Security Standards on POI documents
• a Document Verification Service
• the Integrity of Identity Data, and
• Authentication standards.

The Prime Minister, Premiers and Chief Ministers signed the IGA at the COAG meeting on 13 April 2007. At that meeting, COAG also noted the progress made to date in giving effect to the six elements of the Strategy, and acknowledged the value of this work in providing guidance to government. The COAG Communiqué and IGA are available here.

The key objectives of the Strategy, as set out in the IGA and detailed in the reports to COAG, include:

• improving standards and procedures for enrolment and registration for the issue of proof of identity documents (POI)
• enhancing the security features on POI documents to reduce the risk of incidence of forgery
• establishing mechanisms to enable organisations to verify the data on key POI documents provided by clients when registering for services
• improving the accuracy of personal identity information held on organisations’ databases
• enabling greater confidence in the authentication of individuals using online services, and
• enhancing the national inter-operability of biometric identity security measures.

The Australian Government has adopted the Report as a reference document for its agencies and departments. The Report will provide a useful reference point and guidance for future work on upgrading security of POI documents and procedures. The Report is available here.

National Document Verification Service (DVS)

The Australian Government announced in the 2006 – 07 Budget that the identity of Australians will be further protected with the rollout of the national Document Verification Service (DVS). The national DVS will be rolled out with funding of $28.3 m, building on the prototype service trialled during 2006.

The national DVS will be a secure, electronic, on-line system accessible by all key Australian Government, State and Territory agencies, and potentially by the private sector. Agencies authorised to use the DVS will be able to check in real time whether a document presented to them as a proof-of-identity by an individual applying for high value benefits and services was issued by the relevant agency, and that the details on the document are true and accurate.

A Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) (Word 438KB | PDF 204KB ) has been prepared for the national DVS to inform the development of the DVS system and supporting processes and frameworks. This reflects the Australian Government’s commitment to recognising, and appropriately managing, privacy impacts which may result from its projects and policies. The PIA is intended to be an evolving document, with scope to be amended or updated if required, and to reflect any project developments which impact on privacy. The Department acknowledges the assistance of the Office of the Privacy Commissioner and reference to its Privacy Impact Assessment Guide – August 2006 in the preparation of this document.

ID Theft Kit

The ID Theft Kit has been developed to help Australians prevent, and deal with, identity theft. The Kit is about how to prevent, and respond to, identity theft. It provides practical strategies on how individuals can protect themselves from becoming victims of identity theft, and what to do if they become a victim of this crime.