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Government Task Force

The Government Task Force was established in 2006, to determine GlobalPlatform's role in addressing the long-term needs of governments engaged in large-scale e-ID deployments for both government-to-employee and government-to-citizen applications. In light of the increasing number of large scale government ID chip-based programs, more and more government organizations are seeking information about how to specify open and interoperable solutions in their tenders. An increasing number are turning to consultants and systems integrators for education, to learn about best practices and to minimize deployment risk; functionally and financially.

27 GlobalPlatform member companies currently participate in task force activity. The Government Task Force aims to promote the value of GlobalPlatform Specifications to this sector, educating and informing government issuers, consultants and integrators about the benefits that an open and interoperable environment can bring to their program. Additionally, the task force aims to provide feedback to the GlobalPlatform technical committees regarding the emerging needs of governments. This feedback is based on members' own experience and engagement within the sector and ongoing collaboration between the Government Task Force and other international and regional standardization bodies.

Achievements to Date:

The Government Task Force concentrates its efforts in two main market segments:

  • Government-to-employee
  • Government-to-citizen

Over the past three years, in both the government-to-employee and government-to-citizen market segment, the Government Task Force focused on:

  1. The need to upgrade the cryptographic strength of GlobalPlatform's Secure Channel Protocols (SCP) and Systems Specifications.
  2. The evolution of the ecosystem that GlobalPlatform System Specifications should reflect.
  3. Defining a specific platform configuration for Government ID badges.
  4. Delivering an ISO mapping of GlobalPlatform 2.2 content management interface (ISO Framework).
  5. Privacy enhancements and PKI based protocols.
  6. Biometrics for governments and the value-add GlobalPlatform can bring to biometric deployments.
  7. Defining a specific platform configuration for ID card projects.

In response to participant feedback a number of initiatives were launched:

  • The Card Committee released Card Specifications 2.2 Amendment D (SCP03) SCP03 1.1, an updated Secure Channel Protocol that satisfies National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) requirements such as FIPS 140-2 and solidifies GlobalPlatform's relevance for future deployments of cards issued by governments.
  • A GlobalPlatform Classic Government Configuration Requirement has been finalized and provided to the Card Committee for consideration. This requirement document provided the basis for the Card Committee’s delivery of ‘GlobalPlatform Card ID Configuration v1.0’ in December 2011.

GlobalPlatform continues to take steps to align its specifications with relevant ISO and NIST standards to ensure they can be referenced and easily adopted by governments around the world. In order to achieve this GlobalPlatform representatives attend meetings to contribute to the ISO and NIST standards.  In 2011 the task force created an initial privacy framework to address government identity requirements. This project will continue in 2012.

2012 Activities and Priorities:

The Government Task Force will accelerate the rate of adoption of GlobalPlatform Specifications in government programs by producing requirements for GlobalPlatform's technical committees. This will ensure that specifications or configurations that are created are formally compatible with the international standards which are the building blocks of national standards.
Immediate next steps for the Government Task Force include:

  • Updating the ISO framework for ID cards to comply with ISO7816. Target launch in Q2 2012.
  • Creating a white paper on the GlobalPlatform value proposition for digital ID projects.
  • Finalizing a matrix of protocols versus requirements to develop a detailed set of business requirements for the privacy framework.