The European Citizen Card—More Than an ID

G&D's smart card technology offers security for travel, e-government, and the Internet

Munich/Hanover, March 15, 2007—By 2009, all EU member states will have equipped their electronic identity documents with facial images and fingerprints. Additional applications for the documents will be showcased at this year's CeBIT by Giesecke & Devrient (G&D). The company was one of the first players to implement the Extended Access Control (EAC) protocol in national ID systems. Now, EAC-online provides secure access to websites. That makes it ideal for controlling minors' access to chat rooms.

Life in 2009—security in the real and virtual worlds
One card for everything: soon, citizens will identify themselves using a single card in many parts of the real and virtual world. Not only that, but the future Electronic Citizen Card (ECC) can be outfitted with a passport function (e-passport) and an electronic ID (e-ID). As such, users will be able to chat on Web sites, shop on the Internet, or even painlessly change their official residence and confirm their identities online throughout Europe. Every one of these activities uses the same underlying technology. First, the online provider is given a certificate that authenticates it and tells the user what information to supply in order to complete an Internet transaction. During the transaction, the online provider sends the certificate to the citizen's card, which verifies the certificate. Essentially, the card acts like a bouncer. It only lets data enter the Internet if it is absolutely necessary for the transaction. For booksellers, that might include the customer's name and address. For a kid's chat room, it might be the user's age. That way, children can only log in if they are less than 16 years old, which protects them on the Internet.

In prior solutions, the certificate was verified by software installed on the PC. And that meant that users had to trust the software—not an ideal proposition in an Internet café. Not only that, but the "secure channels" were established between the server and the browser, not between the server and the card. EAC-online, by contrast, provides a secure connection from the online provider right to the card.

Powerful encryption ensures the sensitive data on the card can only be read by authorized parties with special authentication certificates using card readers. G&D is one of the first companies to roll out the EAC protocol for passports and the EAC-online protocol for national ID cards in order to protect electronic business processes.

Required and optional
The European Citizen Card (ECC) supplies the basic services for modern and secure ID cards. The ECC contains a chip that holds not only personal data such as the holder's name, date of birth, height, and eye color, but also an electronic photo and two fingerprints. At the same time, these ID documents will also be used for e-government applications. Individual countries will be free to add more features, including a digital signature if they so desire.

System interoperability
The systems have to be interoperable in order for all EU citizens' ID documents to be readable in all EU states. As such, every system has to comply with common standards. G&D is actively involved in national and international standard-setting bodies such as Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). G&D's electronic passport program already meets all the requirements set by the European Union and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Furthermore, G&D supports the European Citizen Card and provides national ID applications that build on this concept. Hans Wolfgang Kunz, Group Executive for the Government Solutions business unit at Giesecke & Devrient, stressed, "If you want similar applications in the EU member states to be interoperable across national boundaries, you have to ensure compliance with the European Citizen Card standard."

Examples from Europe
Countries like Finland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Italy have already launched ID card programs that allow digital signatures to be used in e-government and e-business. However, these are only national programs that do not yet use the ECC specifications. In Germany, the electronic personal ID card will act not only as a counterfeit-proof form of identification, but will also open up new opportunities for citizens to benefit from e-government and e-business applications.

For further information please contact:

Andrea Bockholt
Phone: +49 89 4119-2422
Fax: +49 89 4119-2020

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Photo
The European Citizen Card