DALLAS, September 15 /PRNewswire/ --
- Entrust and Slovenia to demonstrate interoperability during ePassports EAC Conformity & Interoperability Tests in Prague
After successful deployment of their first-generation ePassport solution in 2006, Slovenia again has selected Entrust, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENTU) to facilitate their government's migration to a second-generation ePassport solution based on the Extended Access Control (EAC) standard. With this, Slovenia becomes one of the first countries in the world to announce its migration to second-generation ePassports.
"Entrust proved to be an invaluable partner and advisor during our implementation of the first phase of ePassports in 2006; leveraging their expertise for our second-generation transition was an easy decision," said Dusan Kricej, Deputy Director General at the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration. "Entrust is a leader in the public key infrastructure (PKI) technology that helps strengthen and secure the foundation of our ePassport environment, and we're eager to realize the capabilities of this second-generation ePassport standard."
Slovenia's second-generation ePassport capabilities, which will be integrated by technology partner S&T, represent one of the core components of the country's citizen-centric e-government. Their e-government services enable secure time-stamping capabilities and helps provide secure applications for tax filing, vehicle registration, online establishment of companies, birth and marriage certificate requests, change of address certifications and many others.
"The increased security of the second generation of ePassports raises the bar for border security and the integrity of the document itself, truly making sure criminals cannot impersonate a genuine document," said Entrust Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Conner. "Powering the security foundation that undergirds EAC passports -- ensuring the PKI is scalable, reliable and has the performance required to manage the mass exchange of digital certificates -- is the key role Entrust plays."
Much like Slovenia, countries are now beginning to evolve their ePassport programs to a second-generation framework that includes capabilities for EAC. European Union (EU) member countries will be required to add biometric data to machine-readable travel documents (MRTDs) with the information protected through the EAC scheme by June 2009.
"Slovenia recognized the importance of leveraging a proven EAC ePassport solution that is both scalable and reliable," said Neill Duff, Snr. VP and General Manager of EMEA for Entrust "As a proponent of e-government capabilities, Slovenia continues to partner with Entrust to help prevent criminal organizations from accessing and using biometric information on ePassports to illegally cross borders."
The terrorists of 9/11 used compromised passports to cross borders while traveling into the United States. The result was the need for a more secure passport. For moving to electronic passports, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) touted two primary goals: to ensure a forged or modified passport could not be used to cross borders; to prevent a criminal from impersonating the identity contained on a genuine passport.
Created to mitigate passport forgery, first-generation ePassports use a Basic Access Control (BAC) RFID chip containing a simple biometric (usually a photo of the individual) along with the identity information of an individual duplicated on the paper document. The Entrust solution provides the digital signatures on BAC ePassports that prevent a cloned or modified passport, when it is properly processed, from being used to cross a border.
The second generation of ePassports, based on the EAC standard, allows governments to leverage a stronger biometric that is more difficult to impersonate on the RFID chip, typically a fingerprint or iris scan. EAC ePassports also require the encryption of the chip contents; even if a criminal has the ability to impersonate the enhanced biometric, access to the chip contents is denied with encryption.
Because of the stringent access controls of the second-generation ePassports, the PKI requirements are much higher, demanding a vendor that can provide scalability, reliability and unprecedented performance. It is this PKI foundation that enhances ePassports security to permit access by border stations with proper authentication, but not by criminals who may seek access to the data for purposes of manipulation or impersonation.
Entrust provides security for the BAC ePassports of a number of top e-governments in the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand.
Having been actively involved in security for ePassports from the formative stages of the technology, Entrust has the expertise to assist countries in migrating from BAC to EAC ePassports seamlessly. Working with leading system integrators, Entrust also has unprecedented interoperability to work between these systems and verify the integrity and proper access to the credentials is secure.
Entrust has a long history of providing security software and services to government agencies across the world. Entrust provides security solutions for e-government and national security initiatives in more than 30 countries worldwide. Government agencies are leveraging the flexible and scalable solutions that Entrust offers to secure transactions and information internally and with citizens, businesses, suppliers and contractors.
The top e-governments in the world rely on Entrust. As ranked by Accenture, the top six e-governments in the world, including Singapore, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, use Entrust solutions to protect sensitive information and enable secure online services. According to September 2007 results of annual measurement of the European Commission, which evaluate the development of e-services in the EU member states, Slovenia showed excellent progress in its move from seventh to second place.
Modular and fully integrated, the Entrust Authority PKI portfolio is built on the foundation of Entrust Authority Security Manager, the certification authority (CA) system responsible for issuing and managing users' digital identities. Optional components help organizations manage the entire lifecycle of PKI certificates. Approximately 1,000 government and commercial organizations have purchased Entrust PKI solutions since Entrust brought the first PKI to market in the 1990s.
With a population of more than 2 million, the Republic of Slovenia boasts a gross national product of approximately US$48 billion. As the first of the 10 new members to join the European Union in 2004, Slovenia also adopted the Euro as its official currency in January 2007, making it the 13th country to join the European monetary union. Slovenia was also the first among new EU member states that successfully held the EU Council Presidency in the first half of 2008.
About Entrust
Entrust (NASDAQ: ENTU) secures digital identities and information for consumers, enterprises and governments in more than 1,700 organizations spanning 60 countries. Leveraging a layered security approach to address growing risks, Entrust solutions help secure the most common digital identity and information protection pain points in an organization. These include SSL, authentication, fraud detection, shared data protection and e-mail security. For information, call +1-888-690-2424, e-mail entrust@entrust.com or visit http://www.entrust.com.
Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Web site: http://www.entrust.com
Brooke Hamilton, Media Relations of Entrust, Inc., +1-972-713-5915, brooke.hamilton@entrust.com; Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060720/NYTH074LOGO, AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
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