secunet has won the German Federal Police’s tender to establish the central certification authority for national border posts.

The Document Verifying Certification Authority (DVCA) provides central certificates that are necessary to check eID documents at national border control posts.

The data saved electronically in current ID documents, such as the new German ID card (nPA), are protected against unauthorised access by technical measures. In order to access data at checkpoints, the reading devices used by border officials must be equipped with the digital certificates issued by the Federal Police. secunet was commissioned to set up the required DVCA to generate these certificates.

The certificates generated by the DVCA are transmitted to the Terminal Control Center (TCC). The TCC performs the cryptographic functions and key management for the connected border control posts and the partially automated EasyPASS border control at Frankfurt airport.

secunet says it has already implemented the Terminal Control Center on behalf of the German Federal Office for Information Security and has developed a border control application to read eID documents at the German border. It developed and implemented essential parts of the German border control infrastructure for eID documents.