Automation and secure birth certificate registration and management process based on biometrics and qr bar codes

Abstract

This study proposes automation of the Zambian civil registration process of Birth and National Identity Card by incorporating biometrics, geospatial and encryption. In Zambia, The Ministry of Home Affairs processes civil registration in two ways: urban and rural. Both registrations initiate with the collection of a birth event on a non-standard birth source record. The birth source records are authenticated when applying for a birth certificate or a national identity card by The Government of the Republic of Zambia Affidavit Form N sworn by a commissioner of oaths. By implication, a commissioner of oaths can authenticate anyone based on Affidavit form N. This authentication process presents information security risks such as identity theft. Zambia, like many developing countries still utilize manual systems to process birth certificate and national identity card information. The first objective of the study was to determine the challenges in the current business processes leading to successful registration of birth certificates and National Identity Cards using ISO 27001 and ISO 24745 as information security and biometric security standards respectively. Based on the results from the first objective, the second objective proposed the development of a business model for birth certificates and national identity card registration using secure two-factor authentication, QR barcode, encryption and geospatial technologies. The third and last objective of the study was to develop a prototype based on the model in the second objective. A baseline study was successfully carried out and a model for the automation, secure registration and storage of civil data developed. The security features in the proposed model are based on biometrics, encryption and QR Barcode Technologies. Validation tests on the developed prototype were carried out and the results were successfully published in the IJACSA Journal vol.9 No.5 of 2018. Therefore, all three objectives of this study have been met. This model has been designed to improve civil registration in the Republic of Zambia but can be adopted to other countries. Keywords: Vital-event, Vital-statistics, Authentication, Biometrics, Two-factor authentication.