European Citizen Card

On December 10, 2004, the Council of the European Union decided to include machine-readable biometric data in all passports issued by EU member states. Since EU citizens can travel within the European Union with just a personal ID card, it only makes sense to integrate the same functionality in ID cards. At the same time, these ID documents will also be used for e-government applications. The basic services in these modern and secure ID cards are provided by the European Citizen Card (ECC) concept. The ECC contains a chip that can hold not only personal data such as the holders name, date of birth, height and eye color, but also an electronic photo and two fingerprints. The highly sensitive fingerprint data is protected from unauthorized access by Extended Access Control (EAC). Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is one of the first companies to implement the EAC protocol in national ID systems. G&D will be unveiling the process at this years CarteS. Extended Access Control protects sensitive fingerprints By 2008, all EU member states have to integrate fingerprints in their national passports (e-passport). With Extended Access Control, the fingerprint data will be protected by powerful encryption so it can only be read by authorized parties who have special authentication certificates installed in their readers. G&D is one of the first companies to roll out the EAC protocol for both reading passport data and protecting electronic business processes that involve national ID cards. 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). European Citizen Card delivers added functionality for e-government applications Countries like Finland, Sweden, Austria, Belgium and Italy have already launched national ID card programs that support authentication for e-government and e-business services. However, these are only national programs that have not yet implemented the brand-new 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 use e-government and e-business applications. In short, the European Citizen Card is the first integrated application to provide electronic authentication and an electronic signature alongside passport functionality.