G&D wins Asian smart ID contract
27 March, 2013
category: Contactless, Government, NFC, Smart Cards, Transit
German technology company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) has won a contract from the government of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China to produce its new multifunction contactless smart ID cards. G&D will be the primary contractor on this project and will have responsibility for the project’s management, smart card application development and modifications to the existing infrastructure to enable support for the new technology.
Macau’s government opted for a secure contactless system to help speed up transactions, particularly in terms of people traveling between the region, Hong Kong and China.
G&D will implement security measures according to the Password Authenticated Connection Establishment (PACE) protocol. This protocol makes possible a highly secure connection between the chip in the card and the reader trying to access it due to data encryption prior to the information exchange.
Macau’s ID cards will function as identification and can contain personal data and digital biometric data, such as photos and fingerprints, on the chip. The card will also support electronic signatures. The cards will use G&D’s Sm@rtCafe Expert 7.0 JavaCard operating system that will be able to support NFC contactless payments.
Macau plans to introduce its new ID cards this October.