"With a thumbprint image, photograph and surface information we can verify the cardholder's identity with a card acceptance device (CAD) rather than the naked eye. This helps prevent forgery and the misuse of cards," Azizan said.

"Getting a passport from the immigration department is much easier, because the department can now positively verify the person's identity using the fingerprint biometric feature in the card instead of relying on the time-consuming verification against databases of different agencies."

Today, Unisys announced a two-year contract extension to manage the further rollout of the project worth US$5 million which includes maintenance and support of hardware and software.

The backbone of the MyKad system is based on Unisys ES7000 and ES2045 servers.