The fact that the number of registered crimes multiplied and the number of document forgeries increased, required determinate and quick measures. With the cooperation of the responsible bodies including the police, the border guards, the Hungarian Customs and Finance Guard (VPOP) and the National Security Special Service, an intensive work started to change the effective rules.

The No. 112/1990. (XII. 23.) government decree on the order of Exporting and importing goods and services regulated among others the import of security papers which form the basis of several document security solutions. Five years later, the No. 98/1995. (VIII. 24.) government decree on the security rules of manufacturing, handling and destroying of value papers stated the reagulation for one of the most important type of document which was followed by rule on the protection of security documents (No. 86/1996. (VI. 14.) government decree on the order of the protection of security documents).

Due to the change in regulations and the increased security needs, all of the most important domestic document were renewed by the end of the decade. The content and format of documents changed and so did the used raw materials and the rules for issuance as well. Aside from the legal regulation, a condition for this change was the technological renewal of the companies working in the security industry. The Hungarian companies headed by State Printing House introduced the application of the most developed technologies very quickly and they worked out new security concepts and technical solutions.

Document reform in practice

The changes in regulations required two things from the participants of the document reform: setting of the security concepts needed (what should change and in what extent) and adopting of the most modern technologies to the domestic system of requirements ((what should change and in what way).

Most personal documents had important functions after the transition as well but they needed renewal by keeping their function. So a key task of the document reform was the conversion of the passport, the ID, the driving licence and the vehicle registration document (although the latter was not a personal document) according to the international security standards. While in the case of the passport, only the security solutions has changed, the other three documents has changed fundamentally according to the requirements of the age. It was another question that what kind of new documents should be created. The answer was given by the social and legal changes. So the certificate of vehicle ownership, the certificate of home address, the temporary ID card, and the certification of self-employment was issued.

The security concept should have contained the format of the new documents, the protection system of the different document elements and the type of personalization. The principle was, that wherever it was possible, the format of the new documents should have been the bank card sized ID 1 (the ID card, the driving licence, certificate of vehicle ownership, certificate of home address, certificate of personal identity number, temporary ID card). Of course, using ID 1 format is not always possible or reasonable, the exceptions are the following: the passport, the vehicle licence, certification of self-employment. The principle of reform was, that each part of the documents i.e. the substrate, the design, the printing ink, the personalisation, the lamination film must be protected.

The personalization of the new type documents which means the application of personal data on the base document can be done in two ways either centralised or decentralised.

Centralised personalization

The centralised personalization offers higher security level, as more expensive and sophisticated machinery can be used and the data flow is more controlled. At the same time, this type of personalization is less flexible and fast especially in the case of data changes and also posting is quite complicated.

	path of the document
	path of personal data

Decentralised personalization

On the contrary, decentralised personalization in an office is flexible and fast but not so secure.

	path of the document
	path of personal data

As a result of the reform, the three most important personal documents (passport, ID card, driving license) that contain unchanging (maiden name, date of birth), rarely changing (married name) or slowly changing (photo of the bearer) data are personalized centrally with laser-engraving technique that is leading in the European Union as well. The certificate of vehicle ownership is also personalised centrally. This document plays very important role in the fight against car theft in Hungary.

The e-documents are coming?

After 2000, the domestic and international document systems must both face new challenges. As social mobility is growing, technology of personal identification must also develop. Aside from the protection of the base document and the personalization, the application of such innovative security technologies is needed which are able to ensure the protection of data and information and their electronic identification. So the personal identification system of the near future is based on biometrics and e-documents.

Just like in the Hungary of the 1990's, the social requirements for security are present at the beginning of the 21st century as well which are by far higher than one-and-a-half decade earlier. The international financial transactions, the global cooperation between organisations and the communication problems among the different cultures require that besides the setting of security levels, the documents should be produced according to identical standards and they should operate in an interoperable system.

The approval of the CEN/TS 15480 standard which was announced by the Hungarian Standards Institution as a Hungarian standard as well European Citizen Card, ECC) in May 2007, a common viewpoint at European level emerged which allows the issuance of E-ID (electronic identity) cards capable of electronic identification, authentication, and signature. These devices are accepted at an international level and they are able to adapt to the different public administration and data protection systems of the member states inside the frames of the standard. So a possibility has arisen for the member states to ensure such electronic identifier and signature devices which can identify the citizen electronically not only in Hungary but at an international level as well and in the case of card documents they are capable of visual identification and they enable electronic administration through independent card acceptor infrastructures and information systems.

Considering the above mentioned, it can be concluded that sensitive reaction to the requirements of our age is very important for both developers and producers. So the future will be about the spreading of such E-ID-s like the Hungarian EU passport with chip. These documents are already using the opportunities offered by chip technology so the most modern biometric identifiers could easily be built in the identification system. Just like in the case of card-based documents and laser engraving technology after the transition, State Printing House is marching at the head in the field of e-documents in the 3rd millennium as well. Due to the developments of its Document Security Laboratory, the Company offers world standard solutions both in the filed of electronic personal identification and the technologies based on biometrics.