Smart 'Citizen Card' shown at CeBIT

HANOVER, Germany -- A smart multifunctional personal identification card is being shown for the first time at CeBIT, the international trade fair attended by hundreds of thousands where many global companies make their most important product announcements. Developed by the German company Giesecke & Devrient, the card uses the biometric characteristics of a fingerprint. The card is also planned to include digital signature, driving license and payment functions. 

The population of Macao in Eastern Asia will be issued over the next four years with smart “Citizen Cards” from Giesecke & Devrient (G&D). A total of 540,000 citizens of the city-state returned to China by Portugal in 1999 will receive new identity cards each equipped with a chip that incorporates a number of functions. The new identity card is mainly aimed at speeding up border controls. 

Siemens is the system integrator and will be introduce the electronic identification system. G&D is supplying the document, covering card body, operating system and identification application. Together with Siemens and the G&D subsidiary Secartis AG, the registration and card-issuing processes will be defined and installed on a secure communication infrastructure.

Inscribed in Macao

The new identity cards will be produced in Germany, but inscribed and loaded with data locally in Macao. "We are supplying all the hardware and the card-based applications, and Siemens the IT infrastructure," said Matthias Merx of G&D's ID Systems unit. 

The new identity card is mainly aimed at speeding up border controls. Two of the cardholder’s fingerprints will be recorded on the card, in case one finger should be injured by a cut or burns and become unusable for identification purposes.

G&D uses algorithms to encrypt the digitized fingerprint data, which are then stored on the card. "Although the person can be identified with absolute certainty from this data, reproducing the fingerprint is totally impossible," Merx said, emphasizing the security aspect. The personal data provided by government agencies is downloaded onto the chip and then removed from all intermediate memories, which makes it unnecessary for new central databases to be set up, or data to be exchanged between various computer systems. Strictly regulated access rights ensure that the individual’s privacy is protected, Merx said.

Reader terminals

In Macao, reader terminals will be installed at the frontiers and in public buildings, and the police will be equipped with mobile terminals. Each terminal will be able to check the fingerprint and will have a specific key that allows it to access only clearly predefined data areas. It is only the ID application that contains the cardholder’s personal details.

In the first planned enhancement, each ID card will be provided with a personal certificate as basis for the digital signature that citizens can use to identify themselves to the Internet and to electronically sign legally binding contracts. As a first application, G&D's Secartis subsidiary will be implementing an Internet portal that will eventually become the central point of contact through which citizens can access “e-government” services. It will then be possible, for example, to submit documents such as tax returns electronically. 

At CeBIT, G&D is also showing a chip card developed for the launch of the e-ticketing project in Hanau in the Rhine-Main region by RMV, the local public transport network. The chip card will serve as an electronic ticket and ensure swift communication with the terminals on public transport. As part of the project, reading devices are being installed in the Hanau city buses that can read the chip cards from a range of about ten centimeters. The background system registers the data and calculates the cheapest rate for the journey.

Electronic ticketing

G&D sees e-ticketing is of particular benefit to passengers who use public transport frequently and between a number of different destinations. The electronic ticket saves passengers from having to search for the right fare zone, or deciding whether a weekly or a monthly season ticket would be cheaper. "Electronic ticketing will make life a great deal simpler for our passengers," as Volker Sparmann, managing director of RMV, said. "In future, customers will be able to use buses and rail transport spontaneously and flexibly, without needing cash and without having to be familiar with the fare structure." Users will receive an account at the end of the month, just like their telephone or electricity bill, listing all the journeys they have made. The pilot project kicked off at the end of 2001. 

The contact-based chip can be used as an electronic purse (the “pre-paid” variant), and can also be linked to bonus programs. This means that the electronic ticket has the potential to become a multifunction card with a wide range of possible applications. In this field trial, RMV is testing out the acceptance of the electronic ticket, following similar trials in Berlin and the region around Siegen, with the aim of meeting the need for more flexibility and convenience in public transport. 

Giesecke & Devrient was founded 150 years ago as a specialist for banknote printing and security paper manufacture, later adding currency automation systems to its product spectrum. Today, G&D is considered a technology leader in the supply of smart cards, card systems and solutions for telecommunications, electronic payments, transportation, health, ID, loyalty, pay-TV, multimedia and Internet security (PKI). 

The G&D Group, headquartered in Munich, has subsidiaries and joint ventures operating all over the world. G&D employs almost 7,000 people world-wide and generated a revenue of euro 1.1 billion in 2000.