A provider of eGovernment solutions, NXP Semiconductors N.V. shares with us three distinct trends in electronic passports (ePassports or biometric passports): increasing functionality, stronger security and the emergence of “virtual mobile identity.”
Out of 900 million passports issued, 730 are ePassports, which now represent the majority of passports in circulation. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations agency that oversees international air travel and defines ePassport standards, 120 states claim that they are currently issuing ePassports. The infrastructure supporting ePassports has expanded as well.
Global shipments of ePassports will rise to 175 million units in 2019, up from 113 million in 2013. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6% during the six-year period.
The international adoption of radio frequency identification device technology for passports appears poised to meet two critical deadlines later this month, as the Homeland Security Department deploys document readers, and foreign governments adopt compatible IT.
Though the global acceptance of RFID technology is moving ahead quickly, with the European Union adopting similar rules in August, the process faces two challenges.
Had Franz Kafka been born in 21st-century Tallinn, Estonia, instead of 19th-century Prague, some of the gems of modernist literature might never have been written. Instead of the man from the country who spends years trying to get past an implacable gatekeeper in the short story “Before the Law,” all he’d need in Estonia is a government-issued electronic identity card. Then he could go online or stick the bar-coded ID into a card reader and, moments later, sign a contract with an international corporate partner, pay a traffic fine, and file his taxes. No lines, no bribes, no forms in triplicate, and no need to plead his case “with one doorkeeper after another, each more powerful than the last,” as in Kafka’s hellish vision. OK, so our bookshelves would be the poorer—but our lives are a hell of lot easier.
Die BündnisGrünen warnen vor dem Einsatz von RFID-Chips in Reisepässen. Auf der IT-Sicherheitskonferenz Blackhat in Las Vegas will der deutsche Experte Lukas Grünwald am vergangenen Freitag demonstriert haben, wie auf den Chips gespeicherte Daten kopiert und zur illegalen Einreise genutzt werden können. Mit frei verfügbaren RFID-Lesegeräten und Informationen auf der Homepage der Internationalen Luftfahrtorganisation (ICAO) sei es möglich gewesen, den Chip zu klonen. "Bei der Festsetzung der Sicherheitsniveaus des Standards waren keine Experten am Werk", kommentierte Grünwald, der Chef des Hildesheimer Consulting-Büros DN-Systems ist.
Read more: Grüne: RFID-Chips in Reisepässen sind ein Sicherheitsrisiko