Government ID, Smart Cards, Identification and Authentication

E-passport passes EU, ICAO tests

Thursday, January 22, 2009

HJP Consulting has successfully completed the testing of the KCOS e-passport, produced by KOMSCO, the national Korean Minting & Security Printing Corporation based in Daejeon, Korea. The travel document was passed the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the European Union conformance testing.

The KCOS e-passport features basic access control, extended access control and other security features and has been certified according to all six test standards covered in Part 2 and Part 3 of both BSI-TR 3105 and the ICAO RF Protocol and Application Test Standard. The German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) published the conformity certificate, BSI-K-TR- 0048-2008, on the BSI Website on Dec. 19.


In its position as a prime contractor, HJP Consulting was responsible for managing the test and certification processes on behalf of KOMSCO. HJP test engineers assisted KOMSCO with all administrative processes with the BSI and the test centers involved. [end] 

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Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.

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CBP denies report

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The Balkan nation of 1.7 million has contracted the Austrian State Printing House (OeSD) to manufacture the new passport booklets and integrate Trüb’s the polycarbonate film datapages, which contain an ICAO-compliant antenna and chip module that stores the document holder’s personal data, a facial image and two fingerprints.

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In an effort to streamline passenger security, Jakarta, Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport has opened the country’s first biometric immigration gate.

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