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U.K. based cyber technology firm VST Enterprises (VSTE) has launched a digital health passport that provides next generation code authentication technology, and that can be used across borders when traveling by air, land, or sea.
The ‘V-Health Passport’ does not use bar or QR code technology, it instead relies on ‘VCode’ to provide advanced closed loop technology, end-to-end encryption, and 2.2 quintillion collision-free combination codes.
“Both bar codes and QR codes, which represent first- and second-generation technology, are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking,” VSTE CEO Louis-James Davis said in a release.
“Therefore, any suggestion of using this type of technology in a health passport for air travel has very real security risks. Not only is a citizen’s personal information at risk, but their COVID-19 test status, vaccination records and also their credit card information, he added.
According to the company, it can provide airline passengers and airlines with a secure digital passport that validates the passenger’s identity, authenticates their COVID-19 test result and vaccination or immunisation details in one secure app.
“This is of particular concern when using a bar code or QR code technology designed for use to authenticate a person’s COVID-19 testing and vaccinations records,” Davis noted.
“With the alarming increase and black-market trade in fake COVID-19 test certificates this also puts a very real threat and risk to passenger safety on airline carriers,” he explained.
VSTE claims that the technology does not track users’ live location and provides all data in a secure GDPR compliant framework. It gives users control of who, when and how they share their data.
Additionally, V-Health Passport provides contact tracing technology which uses anonymised data.
“With V-Health Passport we wanted to provide functionality and greater mobility to allow citizens to return to work, be fit to fly or return to the sports stadiums. But at the heart of the technology was the ability to protect and respect data privacy of the individual,” Davis stated.
V-Health Passport can be downloaded from the Apple App Store or Google Play.