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| Subject: Posted by: Walt Oct 31 2003 7:49:03:810PM | |
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Author: Alan Wong, Director of IT Services Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, provides a brief overview of the project of developing a multi-application smart ID card in Hong Kong. |
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Date Posted: Saturday, November 01, 07:26:10am In reply to: The SAM has different classes for controlling the access to different groups of data. It can help control the access of data according to defined access rights. 's message, "Posted by: Walt Oct 31 2003 7:53:39:420PM" on Saturday, November 01, 07:24:51am Post a new message ERG - ERG LIMITED Posted by: Walt Oct 31 2003 7:49:03:810PM Reply to post #5610 by Walt Go to Post # Previous Respond Message List Next Unfortunately my fears concerning Hong Kong appear to be well founded. Notice that there is space for E-purse but ofcourse ST will reconcile such data. Alan Wong, Director of IT Services Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, provides a brief overview of the project of developing a multi-application smart ID card in Hong Kong. The paper begins by providing the background of IT Development in Hong Kong. It then introduces the ID card in use in Hong Kong, and the reasons for replacing it by a new one. A brief description of the new ID card is provided in the paper, together with an overview of the applications supported by the ID card. The challenges faced and the successes made in the project are discussed. The benefits achieved and the future plans are also covered in the paper. IT Development in Hong Kong Our Government is committed to keep Hong Kong at the forefront of IT development. In 2001, we promulgated the “Digital 21” IT Strategy, which is an overall blueprint for driving IT development in Hong Kong. There are 5 Key Result Areas (KRA, in short) in this Strategy, namely, driving e-business, developing E-government, fostering IT manpower, building a digitally inclusive society, and exploiting enabling technologies. Smart Card is a key technology to be exploited under our KRA 5 -- “Exploiting enabling technologies” To support business activities in this highly competitive global market, we have created an enabling environment that is conducive to the development and application of IT in Hong Kong. According to a survey conducted recently, 62% of our households have personal computers. 53% of them have connected to Internet. Of these Internet users, 44% used broadband services. We have a population of 6.8 million. Of this, some 6.3 million are subscribers of cellular phone services offered by six operators. The penetration rate at 93% is one of the highest in Asia. Today, virtually all commercial buildings and households have broadband coverage in Hong Kong. E-commerce is widely adopted by the community and business sector. In the Economic Intelligence Unit’s e-readiness ranking, Hong Kong is ranked the 10th worldwide, and ranked the Number 1 in Asia. ID Card in Hong Kong For the purpose of checking illegal immigrants, Hong Kong citizens are required by law to carry an ID card with them at all time. ID cards are issued to juveniles at the age of 11. They are required to change to the adult ID card when they reach the age of 18. ID cards are issued to both permanent residents and temporary residents, including foreign workers. At present, there are some 6.8 million residents eligible for an ID card in Hong Kong. Apart from being a proof of identity for law enforcement, the ID card is also an important Travel Document. The ID card can be used for immigration clearance for leaving/entering into Hong Kong. At present, the number of passengers traveling in and out of Hong Kong amounts to over 0.4 million a day. The Need of ID Card Replacement The old ID card is in the form of a plastic card. It was introduced in 1987, which is 16 years from now. With the passage of time, the design of the ID card has become outdated. The use of counterfeits has been detected from time to time. This called for a need to enhance the security of the ID card. In year 2000, the Government completed a feasibility study on the introduction of a new ID card. The study recommended the use of a smart card with multi-application capacity. The target roll-out date was set at 2003. The Smart ID Card Project The Smart ID Card project was launched in 2001, with two main objectives : (i) to improve the security of the ID card; and (ii) to improve services to the public through the provision of multiple applications on the card. The Smart ID Card project was outsourced to an international consortium led by the Pacific Century Cyber Work (PCCW) Limited. The consortium comprises both local and overseas companies, with expertise in the respective fields, such as biometric, cryptographic, and smart card technology. Members companies of the consortium come from 6 different countries including Australia, USA, UK, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. The ID Card project is a major inter-departmental undertaking of the government. The total cost of project is about US$37 millions. The project commenced in Q3 2001. It took slightly less than 2 years to complete. Over 100 IT professionals were involved in the peak period of project development. A total of 14 government bureaux and departments participated in various strands of activities in the project. My department, Information Technology Services Department, is responsible for coordinating all cross-agency issues in the project. We are also responsible for the overall management of the project, as well as the development of the cross-departmental IT infrastructure. We successfully completed the project in June this year, with our first ID card issued on the 23rd of June. The Smart ID Card The new ID Card is a contact type smart card. It is a 32K card, i.e. it has an EEPROM of 32 Kbytes for holding user data and applications. The card chip is featured with a 16-bit CPU, 136 Kbytes of ROM and 5 Kbytes of RAM. The card operating system is the MULTOS (Multi-Application Operating System) which is the only non-military product that achieves the ITSEC E6 certification. Card Security As mentioned earlier, one of the major objectives of the ID Card Project is to improve the card security. To increase the difficulties of producing fraud card, a number of security features have been introduced in the card face. For instance, laser-engraving technology is used for printing data on the card face, making it difficult to alter or imitate. Other security features, such as micro-text printing, rainbow printing, guilloche printing, optical variable ink (OVI), multiple laser images (MLI), soften photo area, etc are also adopted for enhancing the security. For further security protection, a dedicated MULTOS Key Management Authority (KMA) is established in Hong Kong. To our knowledge, it is one of the few KMA’s operated outside the MULTOS headquarters at UK. This dedicated KMA enables us to have full control of the root keys. This ensures security protection of the MULTOS chip and its associated data throughout its life cycle, covering from the point of manufacturing, through the stages of personalization, issuance and usage, to the point of final disposal. To add a further level of security safeguard, mutual authentication between the ID card and the backend system is required every time when data in the chip is updated. The mutual authentication is done through the use of Security Access Module (SAM). The SAM has different classes for controlling the access to diff (Voluntary Disclosure:No Position Short Term rating: Long Term Rating:) OZeStock Advertisment: Previous Respond Message List [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |