Leveraging the e-passport PKI to Achieve Interoperable Security for e-government Cross Border Services

Public Key Infrastructure is identified as the essential architecture upon which security and trust are built, in order to provide authentication, identity verification, encryption and non-repudiation in electronic transactions. Cross border availability of e-government services requires such a security infrastructure to provide a horizontal level of service across all implicated entities. This paper identifies the unique characteristics of a necessary interoperable security infrastructure and towards this goal explores the restrictions of current authentication approaches. Following this, the ability of the electronic passport PKI solution to extend and meet the demands of an interoperable cross border e-id solution is explored, as the requirements of such an authentication mechanism correlate to the characteristics of the deployed epassport infrastructure. Finally, this paper proposes leveraging the e-passport infrastructure, to build a secure cross border authentication mechanism.