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 smart card deployments for e-ID. In light of the increasing number of large scale government ID smart card programs, more and more governments 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.
24 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 smart card infrastructure can bring to their program. Additionally, the task force aims to provide feedback to the GlobalPlatform technical committees regarding the emerging needs of governments in smart card based ID deployments. This feedback is based on members' own experience and engagement within the sector and ongoing collaboration between the Government Task Force and other standardization and government focused bodies.
In response to the growing deployment of biometric solutions, GlobalPlatform has launched a Biometrics Sub-Task Force as part of the Government Task Force. The aim of this group is to establish an industry understanding of how biometric technology should be implemented, by developing strategies that will mitigate end-user threats and offer long-term scalability. Since its creation, the Biometric Sub-Task Force has developed a white paper to explain how GlobalPlatform's existing technology can add value to biometric match-on-card solutions. The white paper is free to download from the resources center.
Achievements to Date:
The Government Task Force concentrates its efforts in two main market segments:
- Government to employee
- Government to citizen
Last year, in the government to employee market segment, the Government Task Force focused on:
In the government to citizen market segment, the Government Task Force focused on:
- Privacy enhancements and PKI based protocols.
- Biometrics for governments and the value-add GlobalPlatform can bring to biometric deployments.
In response, a number of initiatives were launched:
- The Card Committee released SCP03 1.1, an updated Secure Channel Protocol that satisfies National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST) requirements and solidifies GlobalPlatform's relevance for future deployments of cards issued by governments.
- A Physical Access Control System (PACS) requirement for the Device Committee has been started.
- A GlobalPlatform Basic Government Configuration Requirement has been drafted and is under consideration.
- A draft of the SCP11 Privacy Enhanced Technology Requirement is ready to enter the GlobalPlatform publication process.
GlobalPlatform continues to take steps to align its specifications with relevant ISO standards to ensure they can be referenced and easily adopted by governments around the world.
2010 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.
GlobalPlatform has already developed foundation technology to assist in this effort:
- An ISO compliant PKI based secure channel has been specified (SCP10) and a configuration of SCP10 is slated for deployment in Japan.
- An ISO Specification for core Card and Application Management Services has been created at ISO: ISO7816-13.
Immediate next steps for the Government Task Force include:
- To create a Basic Government Configuration Requirement that will encompass the needs of governments for an employee ID card, including:
- Multi-application functionality
- ISO compliancy
- Support of cryptographic upgraded assurance levels
- Security domains for ID, payment and transit
- Supporting different deployment models from basic agency issuer to employee, to service provider
- Biometric capabilities.
- To create a Basic Government to Citizen Configuration Requirement that will emphasize privacy enhancement and leverage international standardization efforts and create an adequate context for SCP11.
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