Secure ID cards are entry or access cards, which, as the name suggests, are designed to maintain the security of your building. There are several different kinds available and choosing the right one for your particular building can have a significant impact on how secure it is.
Manual Secure ID Cards
The most basic secure ID cards require someone to actually be present to look at the card. In most cases, these cards have some form of photo ID included on them to allow a security guard to confirm that the person carrying the card is the proper owner of the card. The design on the card is unique, which allows the security guard to ascertain that the holder of the card has permission to enter the building.
However, in the modern world the use of these types of ID cards is dying out. There are several reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that they are no longer really effective. Modern printers and photocopiers make it extremely easy for someone to get hold of one of these cards and make an exact copy of it. To use it all someone has to do is to insert a photo of themselves onto the fake card. The security guard will be none the wiser and allow them entry into the building.
However, it is possible to add layers of visual security to these cards to make them far harder to copy. Holograms are an example of this, and they are still relatively effective.
Electronic Secure ID cards
There is an even better alternative and that is to use digital or electronic secure ID cards. These cards have digital data embedded into them. This data is held either on a small microchip or on a magnetic strip. Using electronic or digital secure ID cards has the added advantage of allowing you to control which areas of a building each individual has access to. You can, if you want to, do without security guards because the cards combined with a swipe system can control who the doors for your building can be opened by.
RW Pierce specialise in producing secure ID cards. They use the latest technology to embed multiple layers into the cards that they sell.