German Federal Police checks electronic identity documents at German borders using the secunet eID PKI Suite
The electronically stored data in current identity documents are protected against unautorised access by technical means. In order to enable the national border control stations to access these data when checking documents, their reading devices must be equipped with digital certificates which are issued by the Federal Police in Germany. The Federal Police ordered secunet to implement the certification authority DVCA (Document Verifying Certification Authority) needed for issuing these certificates.
Next to setting up the DVCA, secunet also takes over the unimpeded connection to the Terminal Control Centre (TCC) which executes the cryptographic functions and the key management for the connected border control system. The entire exchange and authorisation process of the certificates thus runs smoothly and automatically in the background of the visible border control.
With setting up the DVCA of the Federal Police, all components of the EAC-PKI are in operation. The Federal Police trusts in the know-how and the established technologies of secunet: next to the DVCA, secunet also implemented the TCC as well as various applications for the border control for the Federal Police, for example the partially automated border control system EasyPASS at Frankfurt Airport.
We have been successfully operating our central PKI system since 2011. Following a smooth, simple implementation, the entire system has proved itself to be incredibly efficient and reliable on a daily basis. For mission-critical applications such as a border control PKI we could not afford any system failures!