Australia’s vaccine passport FAQ: everything you need to know from security to how to get one

You’ll need to pack one to go overseas, but do you need to buy one and can they be forged? This is what you need to know about Australia’s vaccine passport.

Suitcase, phone, passport, proof of vaccination: this will be the new international travel checklist as Australia opens its borders to the world again.

Aussies will be allowed to jet off on overseas holidays from November 1, but they’ll have to hold an International COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate to get on the plane.

But how will the new credential work, how will you get one, and how does it compare to passes used overseas and the record you might show at a bar?

We asked experts in cryptography, security and travel to find out.

WHO NEEDS A VACCINE CERTIFICATE?

Any Australian over the age of 12 will need to show this certificate as proof they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 to travel overseas.

The certificate is a separate document from a passport but will be linked to one, and will be checked by immigration officials at airports.

Alicia Hall, a publicist from Melbourne, said she was so thrilled to take an overseas holiday with her husband Tom and their three kids, they were already planning several trips.

“We’ve been dreaming about this for two years,” she said. “Now, the fact it’s going to happen, that’s so exciting.”

Ms Hall said she and her husband were both fully vaccinated and hoped the international vaccine passport would be as easy to obtain as the earlier Medicare certificate so they could jet off shortly.

“We spent so many weeks telling the kids about the world and where we going to go when everything opened up,” she said. “Now that’s happening we said to them last week we’re looking at going to Japan next year and we’re looking at doing a road trip around New Zealand in a camper van.”

HOW DOES THE AUSTRALIAN VACCINE PASSPORT WORK?

Before Aussies pack their bags, they’ll need two Covid-19 vaccinations, both recorded on the Australian Immunisation Register.

They’ll also need a MyGov account, linked to Medicare, where they can apply for the international vaccine certificate.

If you cannot access the internet, you can request a certificate from Medicare to be posted to you.

The certificate uses a unique QR code to identify you that promises to be “as secure as an Australian passport chip” and can be easily read by officials but not changed.

IS IT SECURE?

TrustGrid chief digital privacy officer David Palmer, a cryptography expert who worked on the NSW Government’s digital driver’s licence project, lauded the technology used in Australia’s international vaccine passports.

The certificate’s QR code was in a format approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and used public key infrastructure, which Mr Palmer said made the code easy to scan at an airport but difficult for criminals to alter.

The information, he said, could be ready with a public key but only changed with a private key.

“This is a very good system for ensuring the authenticity and integrity a document such as a vaccination passport,” he said.

“If a document has been tampered with it’s very easy to detect, and it will produce a message to show that.

“And to create a forged document or to change the document, you would need to obtain the private or secret key which the government would have stored in a very secure location.”

WHAT ABOUT FAKES?

While Australia’s vaccine passport documents received praise for their security measures, experts were critical of the government’s domestic vaccine certificates, which they said were crudely made and easily faked.

Check Point Software cybersecurity expert Ashwin Ram said forged Medicare vaccination certificates were selling through Telegram for as little as $110.

And rather than being sold on the Dark Web, as typical of fraudulent ID, criminals were setting up regular websites to sell forgeries, he said, and accepting Bitcoin as payment.

“It is bold but there is demand there,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in the space of a couple of months from 1000 scammers to something like 10,000 scammers.

“We have also seen them update the look at feel of vaccination certificates.”

But Mr Ram said anyone tempted to give the fraudsters money should be aware that the practice was illegal and dangerous.

“If you are using vaccine certificates that are fake, you’re putting your family, friends and colleagues at risk,” he said.

“You are also empowering criminals to do the wrong thing and putting your own security at risk.”

GLOBAL VIEW

EUROPEAN UNION

Europe’s governing body introduced the EU Digital COVID Certificate as a vaccine passport that could be used across its 27 member nations for international travel, and is now recognised by many other countries.

The certificate can be used in digital or paper form and consists of a QR code linked to the holder’s medical records.

The passport shows proof the individual has been vaccinated against Covid-19, received a negative test or recovered from an infection.

All EU citizens, their family members, and people who are legally staying in the EU can apply for a certificate.

ENGLAND AND WALES

UK residents are asked to show an NHS COVID Pass when they travel overseas and return. The passport shows their Covid-19 status as provided by GP clinics, and indicates whether they have been vaccinated, have recovered from the virus or recently tested negative to it.

The NHS COVID Pass is available in an app but can also be shown on a piece of paper where it appears as a unique barcode that can be scanned.

The vaccine passport can also be used by businesses in Wales and England, though people in Scotland are asked to use an NHS Scotland Covid Status App featuring a QR code.

CANADA

The Canadian province of Quebec released a Covid-19 vaccination passport for travel last Monday that it says should be adopted by the rest of the country and will be recognised by other nations.

The passport arrives in the form of a QR code in a PDF document. It can be shown during travel on a mobile phone screen or a piece of paper, and can also be added to the country’s existing Vaxicode app that launched in September.

JAPAN

In addition to records and certificates, Japan has created a vaccination passport that’s designed only for overseas travel.

Called the Covid-19 Vaccination Certificate, it features a holder’s name, birth date, nationality, and details of their first and second vaccine jab, and is shown in Japanese and English.

The passport is only available in paper form now but the government plans to issue a digital QR code option in December.

INDIA

India has a unique solution to providing proof of a Covid-19 vaccination by linking details to individuals’ actual passports.

Covid-19 vaccination records can be accessed in an Indian app called CoWIN that will also show a QR code as proof.

However, the record can be linked to an individual’s traditional paper passport using this app