Ground-breaking security controller technology from global semiconductor developer Infineon Technologies protects the biometric and demographic data contained in an e-passport from both conventional and quantum computer attacks. The company unveiled the new e-passport technology in late November.
The technology encrypts biometric passenger data during the authentication process and is the world’s first electronic passport to meet the security requirements for the quantum computing era of the future
The security controller was developed in concert with the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied and Integrated Security (AISEC) and Bundesdruckerei (German Federal Printing Office).
Fraunhofer AISEC’s Professor Marian Margraf explains that the technology, “uses the cryptographic methods Dilithium and Kyber, which the U.S. National Standardization Institute (NIST) selected in July 2022 after a worldwide competition for post-quantum cryptography. Based on that, we developed protocols for the passport that were then subjected to a further independent security evaluation.”
The prototype uses contactless data transfer from an e-passport to a border checkpoint terminal, but with a quantum computer-resistant version of the Extended Access Control (EAC) protocol. This also secures the passport holder’s biometric information during the authentication process.
The authentication process using the new security controller is compatible with current established structures. The system was created in the “PoQuID” joint research project, led by Fraunhofer and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
Sources:
Infineon
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