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secunet supports further development of the ISO standards for biometrics

[Essen/Germany, 21 January 2011] Matthias Niesing, a biometrics expert from secunet, has become co-editor in the revision process of the BioAPI 2.0 standard, which defines the architecture and interfaces for biometric applications and will be revised in the coming years.

The experts in biometrics and electronic ID documents at secunet have been involved in various international committees for a number of years. They support the development of standards, the creation of technical specifications and the performance of interoperability tests for electronic identification documents and systems.

Dr. Rainer Baumgart, CEO of secunet Security Networks AG, explains: “With the early involvement in the standardization process secunet specialists bring in their first-hand know-how from various international projects into the procedure. Know-how is an essential requirement for defining high quality standards and is inevitable for a high compatibility between all products complying with the standard.”

The decision to revise the BioAPI 2.0 standard was made last week in Stockholm at the biannual meeting of the ISO Technical Committee SC 37, which is responsible for biometrics within the JTC (Joint Technology Committee). The JTC is a merger of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

An architecture in accordance with the BioAPI 2.0 standard is used in two secunet products: in the biometric middleware secunet biomiddle, biometric hardware and software components are linked via the BioAPI 2.0 interface; the product secunet Golden Reader Tool Platinum Edition is also BioAPI 2.0-compliant and was developed to read data stored on electronic IDs, such as the German ePass.