Page 13 - Security Today, July/August 2018

verification and entry process. Letting an RFID access control reader validate the tick- et and flag counterfeits is much faster than having someone physically inspect each one. Remember, event organizers must move tens of thousands of people through the gates in as little as an hour.
Event organizers should also explore oth- er applications and services that are possible with today’s multi-application embedded ticket tokens. This includes reserving a sec- tion of the RFID chip for data that can give fans access to museums, public transporta- tion and other host city amenities.
Making it Personal
After tickets are produced, the next step is personalization, fulfillment and consign- ment. An event like the 2018 FIFA World Cup is attended by approximately three million fans, each of whom needs a way to acquire the tickets they’ve purchased online. The most common practice is to load pre- personalized tickets into machines at a com- bination of self-service and manned ticket terminals where fans can pick them up.
The base terminal configuration consists of a desktop with external (or integrated) webcam, and a printer. The customizable terminals include all hardware and software necessary to manage all aspects of ticket is- suance, including electrical personalization of the chip and thermal printing of graphics. A secure application module (SAM) is used to digitally sign data inside the RFID chip, and a key management system generates keys and certificates for all data encryption and decryption.
An increasingly popular fulfillment alter- native is for tickets to be delivered directly to fans’ homes. This requires pre-personalizing the tickets and then using data provided by the ticketing vendor to execute the final personalization. Middleware interfaces the ticket terminal with the ticketing provider’s software, and fulfillment is completed with a delivery partner. Event organizers need to know that their issuance provider can deliver all of these services across high volumes of tickets in extremely compressed timeframes. This is especially important in the final sales round of a major event when as many as a million tickets or more might need to be per- sonalized and shipped to fans within a few short weeks before the matches begin.
One other fulfillment option is typically used for group associations such as Partici- pating Member Associations (PMAs), which receive a Smart card to collect their tickets. This represents an easier way to pick up mul- tiple tickets for multiple matches. The desig- nated member of each PMA will receive an RFID smart card containing all information about the group’s entire number of tickets to be collected. One tap of the card to the ma-
chine’s reader is all that is required for this person to receive the group’s entire ticket or- der, all at once.
Using Real Time Information
Many event organizers also want to take ad- vantage of the real-time analytics that secure RFID tickets can provide before and after an event. They can benefit, for instance, from information about the number of accesses per gate or time slot, and other customizable statistics such how many non-authorized tickets were denied at each gate. Despite their security, RFID tickets continue to be tested by fraudsters, with some events reporting as many as 2,000 counterfeit tickets refused at the gate for every million tickets sold.
Besides stopping fraud at the gate, the technology inside today’s secure RFID tickets also speeds the verification process because problems are revealed the instant the ticket is tapped to the reader. There is no need for someone to inspect each paper ticket or scan mag-striped ones and slow down the line. All holders of valid tickets simply “tap and go” to immediately enter the stadium, and only when a ticket is denied is there a disruption, which may be solved with a secondary magstripe swipe or may
need further investigation.
One other trend in ticket issuance tech-
nology is trusted mobile tickets that enable spectators to enter a concert venue or sports arena with a ticket on their mobile device. This ticket issuance model builds on the suc- cess of mobile ID programs at major uni- versities and in enterprises where users carry IDs on their phones and tap them to readers to quickly and conveniently access buildings and make cafeteria purchases, among other applications. The concept has already been piloted at a major European sporting event that hosted 30,000 people.
The latest ticket issuance technologies are playing a critical role in protecting event organizers from fraud at some of world’s highest-profile sporting and enter- tainment events. At the same time, they are improving the fan experience from the mo- ment when tickets are picked up to when they’re used to “tap and go” through the venue gate or to enjoy a
variety of other poten-
tial services in the event’s
host cities.
Cesare Paciello is the vice president of ticketing and transport at HID Global.
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