ICAO MRTD : Public Key Cryptography : Digi-Sign.com

Electronic passports, or e-passports, are being issued and inspected across the globe in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO] standards for Machine Readable Travel Documents [MRTD]. e-Passports, ID cards [1] and other MRTD compliant documents (e.g. visa applications) are becoming the world’s most widely rolled out identity documents in a spectrum.

The second generation e-passports must now contain fingerprint and facial images, protected by the cutting-edge Extended Access Control (EAC) protocol. These new e-passports contain individual private keys to resist counterfeiting, and require inspecting parties to prove that they are entitled to extract sensitive data such as the fingerprint, using digital signatures and a Public Key Infrastructure [PKI [2]].

The innovative approach to e-Passport technology from Cryptomathic handles keys securely, streamlines both management and operational procedures and elimates the need for solution integrators to deal with cryptography and key management.

Once the users identity information has been collected, the Cryptomathic ID issuer data preparation software formats the raw data into and ICAO standardised Logical Data Structure (LDS), creating an individual key pair for each e-Passport, and calling the Digi-CA™ [2] to digitally sign the LDS to detect modification. The data is then formatted and loaded onto the e-Passport chips.

The Card Verification Certificate Authority [CVCA] and Document Verification Certificate Authority [DVCA] are used to create and manage the certificate chain to approve an Inspection System to retrieve fingerprints from the e-Passport.