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Removing eID frontiers
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7 FEATURE January 2009 Biometric Technology Today Removing eID frontiers Cross-border recognition and authentication of national eID systems and easy access to public services in 13 Member States is being piloted during the Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) project, which began in June 2008, and will run for three years. The project, which will receive 10 million funding from the European Commission and an equal contribu- tion from the participating partners, is a project under the ICT Policy Support Programme of the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The CIP aims to encourage the competitiveness of European enterprises. Part of CIP, the ICT Policy Support Programme, focuses on stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and optimal use of ICT by citizens, businesses and governments. The Project coordinator is ATOS Origin Sociedad Anonima Española and includes several partners (including eema) from the participating member states. STORK aims to provide a focal point for eID initiatives in the EU, enabling citizens to prove their identity and use national eID sys- tems (passwords, ID cards, PIN codes and oth- ers), not just in their home country. The plan is to align and link systems without having to replace existing ones. Bring down the barriers Throughout the EU, some 30 million national eID cards are being used by citizens to access a variety of public services, such as claiming social security and unemployment benefits or filing tax returns. However, several barriers to the free movement of workers still exist in the EU. For example, accessing public services while working or living in another country is not easy. STORK will facilitate this situation by enabling businesses and citizens to securely use their national eID and receive services from public administrations while living or travelling in any Member State. “eIDs do not yet do enough for mobile EU citizens,” says Viviane Reding, commissioner for Information Society and Media. “By tak- ing advantage of the development in national eID systems and promoting mutual recogni- tion of electronic identities between Member States, this project moves us a step closer to seamless movement between EU countries that Europeans expect from a borderless Single European Market.” STORK’s vision of simplifying administra- tive formalities by providing online access to public services across EU borders will be achieved through the development and test- ing of common specifications for secure and mutual recognition of national eID between participating countries. STORK’s objectives are to develop widespread rules and specifica- tions to assist mutual recognition of eIDs across national borders, to test secure and easy-to-use eID solutions for citizens and businesses in real life environments and to interact with other EU initiatives to maximise the usefulness of eID services. The solution provided is intended to be robust, transparent, safe to use, scalable, and should be implemented in such a way that it is sustainable beyond the life of the pilot. STORK will prepare and implement the following pilots for 12 months by making use of open standards where possible and respecting data protection regulations: • Cross-border authentication platform for electronic services, building a demonstrator showing that cross-border electronic services can operate in a number of Member States; • Safer chat, to promote safe use of the Internet by children and young people; • Student mobility, to help people who want to study in different Member States; • Electronic delivery, to develop cross-border mechanisms for secure online delivery of documents. • Change of address, to assist people mov- ing across EU borders. The pilots will be achieved as an iterative process, starting with common specifica- tions, following with the implementation of the pilots and finishing with evaluation along with feedback. Multi-platform identity Without replacing national schemes, the new system will allow citizens to identify themselves electronically in a secure way and deal with public administrations either from public offices, from their PC or ideally from any other mobile device. It means, for exam- ple, that a student will be able to register in a foreign university using his/her home country’s eID. Some cross-border services already exist; a Belgian web portal allows foreign companies to register to employ citizens from Sweden. After completion of the project this should be possible using their national eID card. Security and privacy are serious concerns within the project. All efforts will be made to ensure that mutual recognition of eID makes identity theft extremely difficult. As authentication levels for a given application may differ across Member States, the project will develop ‘circles of trust’ at European scale. The timing and objectives of STORK are ideal for producing high impact and contributing to the proposed objectives of the Lisbon Ministerial Declaration (2007), that is to say interoperability among Member States and reduction of administrative bureaucracy. In the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan, EU Member States recognised the importance of elec- tronic identification management. By 2010, they aim to provide secure and convenient electronic systems for European citizens and businesses accessing public services in any country of the European Union. These should work at local, regional or national levels and comply with data protection regulations. Easy access to public services across the EU is crucial for EU citizens travelling with- in Europe for business, studies or holidays and contributes to enhance the mobility of workers around Europe. More information on the project can be found at www.eid-stork.eu. or www.eema.org eIDs (credentials) have simplified life for scores of Europeans. A Belgian house- wife prepares and submits her tax returns online; an Estonian nurse quickly checks her pension entitlements, but what happens when they travel abroad? Unfortunately, the benefits of these services disappear when citizens try to use one country’s eID to access another country’s services. A Portuguese university student is transferring for one year to an Austrian University and a Swedish lawyer settles and launches her business in Spain – is there any way for them to change their addresses and interact with the public services of their host coun- tries without losing time and energy? How can all this be achieved? Roger Dean, executive director of the European association for eID and security (eema), explains how the STORK project could address these challenges.
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Transcript of Removing eID frontiers
7
FEATURE
January 2009 Biometric Technology Today
Removing eID frontiers
Cross-border recognition and authentication of national eID systems and easy access to public services in 13 Member States is being piloted during the Secure idenTity acrOss boRders linKed (STORK) project, which began in June 2008, and will run for three years. The project, which will receive 10 million funding from the European Commission and an equal contribu-tion from the participating partners, is a project under the ICT Policy Support Programme of the EU’s Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). The CIP aims to encourage the competitiveness of European enterprises. Part of CIP, the ICT Policy Support Programme, focuses on stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and optimal use of ICT by citizens, businesses and governments. The Project coordinator is ATOS Origin Sociedad Anonima Española and includes several partners (including eema) from the participating member states.
STORK aims to provide a focal point for eID initiatives in the EU, enabling citizens to prove their identity and use national eID sys-tems (passwords, ID cards, PIN codes and oth-ers), not just in their home country. The plan is to align and link systems without having to replace existing ones.
Bring down the barriersThroughout the EU, some 30 million national eID cards are being used by citizens to access a variety of public services, such as claiming social security and unemployment benefits or filing tax returns. However, several barriers to the free movement of workers still exist in the EU. For example, accessing public services while working or living in another country is not easy. STORK will facilitate this situation by enabling businesses and citizens to securely use their national eID and receive services from public administrations while living or travelling in any Member State.
“eIDs do not yet do enough for mobile EU citizens,” says Viviane Reding, commissioner for Information Society and Media. “By tak-ing advantage of the development in national eID systems and promoting mutual recogni-tion of electronic identities between Member States, this project moves us a step closer to seamless movement between EU countries that Europeans expect from a borderless Single European Market.”
STORK’s vision of simplifying administra-tive formalities by providing online access to public services across EU borders will be achieved through the development and test-ing of common specifications for secure and mutual recognition of national eID between participating countries. STORK’s objectives are to develop widespread rules and specifica-tions to assist mutual recognition of eIDs across national borders, to test secure and easy-to-use eID solutions for citizens and businesses in real life environments and to interact with other EU initiatives to maximise the usefulness of eID services.
The solution provided is intended to be robust, transparent, safe to use, scalable, and should be implemented in such a way that it is sustainable beyond the life of the pilot. STORK will prepare and implement the following pilots for 12 months by making use of open standards where possible and respecting data protection regulations:
• Cross-border authentication platform for electronic services, building a demonstrator showing that cross-border electronic services can operate in a number of Member States;
• Safer chat, to promote safe use of the Internet by children and young people;
• Student mobility, to help people who want to study in different Member States;
• Electronic delivery, to develop cross-border mechanisms for secure online delivery of documents.
• Change of address, to assist people mov-ing across EU borders.
The pilots will be achieved as an iterative process, starting with common specifica-tions, following with the implementation of the pilots and finishing with evaluation along with feedback.
Multi-platform identityWithout replacing national schemes, the new system will allow citizens to identify themselves electronically in a secure way and deal with public administrations either from public offices, from their PC or ideally from any other mobile device. It means, for exam-ple, that a student will be able to register in a foreign university using his/her home country’s eID.
Some cross-border services already exist; a Belgian web portal allows foreign companies to register to employ citizens from Sweden. After completion of the project this should be possible using their national eID card.
Security and privacy are serious concerns within the project. All efforts will be made to ensure that mutual recognition of eID makes identity theft extremely difficult. As authentication levels for a given application may differ across Member States, the project will develop ‘circles of trust’ at European scale.
The timing and objectives of STORK are ideal for producing high impact and contributing to the proposed objectives of the Lisbon Ministerial Declaration (2007), that is to say interoperability among Member States and reduction of administrative bureaucracy. In the i2010 eGovernment Action Plan, EU Member States recognised the importance of elec-tronic identification management. By 2010, they aim to provide secure and convenient electronic systems for European citizens and businesses accessing public services in any country of the European Union. These should work at local, regional or national levels and comply with data protection regulations.
Easy access to public services across the EU is crucial for EU citizens travelling with-in Europe for business, studies or holidays and contributes to enhance the mobility of workers around Europe.
More information on the project can be found at
www.eid-stork.eu. or www.eema.org
eIDs (credentials) have simplified life for scores of Europeans. A Belgian house-wife prepares and submits her tax returns online; an Estonian nurse quickly checks her pension entitlements, but what happens when they travel abroad? Unfortunately, the benefits of these services disappear when citizens try to use one country’s eID to access another country’s services. A Portuguese university student is transferring for one year to an Austrian University and a Swedish lawyer settles and launches her business in Spain – is there any way for them to change their addresses and interact with the public services of their host coun-tries without losing time and energy? How can all this be achieved? Roger Dean, executive director of the European association for eID and security (eema), explains how the STORK project could address these challenges.
