Test methods for ePassports and readers available

ISO/IEC SC17 Working Group 3 Task Force 4 has now created version 1.0 of the ICAO RF Protocol and Application Test Standard for e-Passports. This work has been carried out on behalf of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and should help ensure the smooth introduction of ePassports by making sure they are not only successful in crossover interoperability trials, but that they also comply with the fine details contained within the relevent passport standards.

Parts 2 and 4 have been available for ISO WG3 and ICAO members since 13 December, while Part 3 was distributed within the last few days.

It is planned that ICAO’s New Technology Working Group (NTWG) will endorse the specifications as ICAO Technical Reports at its next meeting (Portugal, 6-9 February 2007). Following this, the ICAO TAG meeting taking place from 19-22nd March 2007 is likely to confirm the official release of the test standards parts 2, 3 and 4 as Technical Reports. At this point they would be recommended for use by all ICAO members and industry.

The test standards will not become part of ICAO doc 9303, but are to remain provisional Technical Reports. This is because NTWG decided at its last meeting that the test standards shall be further developed by ISO with a view to becoming ISO standards by the end of 2007.

Version 1.0 of the ICAO test standard was created based on international feedback received on version 0.95 following the WG3 TF4 meeting in Bled, Slovenia, in October 2006.

 

* In a separate but related development, HJP Consulting confirmed that its e-Passport test tool - GlobalTester - supports this new specification and the associated test scripts version 1.0 are now available for members of the GlobalTester Community on https://www.globaltester.org/

GlobalTester is HJP Consulting´s Open Source based test tool, which provides an environment to fully test products against the ICAO test standard.