Slovenia makes EAC commitment

Entrust has been selected by the Slovenian government to provide technology for the country’s migration to second generation ePassports based on the Extended Access Control (EAC) standard.

Entrust had previously been involved in the 2006 first generation ePassport deployment in the country.

According to the company, 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 eGovernment. Its eGovernment services enable secure time-stamping capabilities and help 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,” says Bill Conner, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Entrust.

Many 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.

“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,” says Entrust. “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.”