ePassport

The world's first electronic passport was deployed in Malaysia in 1998. This was the culmination of four years of effort to design, prototype and develop the cards, software and terminals. Whilst the credit for the hardware used in the ground breaking invention lies with the engineers at Iris Corporation in Malaysia, the software and the security architecture was the responsibility of the Digital Locksmiths' engineers. Working both in the UK and locally in Kuala Lumpur it was possible to develop the devices and integrate the production with the government agencies in an unprecedented short timescale.

Since the ground breaking roll-out of e-Passports in Malaysia the rest of the world has woken up to the potential for this technology to improve travel document security. So much so, that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has incorporated this technology into the standards that define Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTD, better known as e-Passports!). ICAO Doc 9303 shares remarkable similarities with our original designs.

In the ten years since the successful launch of the e-Passport technology the boffins at Digital Locksmiths have been involved in development of software for new chips designed to improve on the features of the original technology. This has includes migration to the ‘new’ standards for contactless smartcard communications (ISO 14443), and the implementation of the ICAO specification for the passport itself and the terminals that read the documents at immigration checkpoints.

It's safe to say that where e-Passports are concerned we've "been there, done that!"