Entrust Inc. demonstrated a successful public key infrastructure certificate exchange using the United Kingdom and Slovenia systems in a multi-country test environment during tests in Prague last week. The vendor confirmed that the security infrastructure for second-generation e-passports, based on Extended Access Control (EAC), is ready for global deployment.
One of the key objectives of the Prague tests was for European countries to prove that e-passports containing fingerprint biometric data were protected by EAC functions. A second objective was to verify crossover interoperability between EAC inspection systems and e-passports from different countries.
In addition to standard conformance and crossover interoperability, the tests were the first organized attempt to verify EAC PKI operation in accordance with the European Union Certificate Policy, including bilateral exchange of EAC certificates. Twelve of the 27 participating countries completed the first PKI test round, and four countries participated in all four phases of the PKI testing, demonstrating a complete end-to-end system.
While all twelve countries demonstrated certificate exchanges with multiple country certificate authorities, United Kingdom and Slovenia completed the four PKI test phases, as well as targeted exchanges with all 12 countries. As part of the event, Entrust also demonstrated integration with leading ePassport equipment vendors, including L-1, 3M and G.E.T. ![[end]](/resources/bullet/contactlessnews-4.gif)
