Germany Gets Set to Issue RFID ID Cards and Readers to Its Citizens

Through an open tender, the government selected the following organizations to distribute the reader infrastructure, starting on Nov. 1, as part of promotional or commercial activities: CHIP Communications, Cosmos Lebensversicherungs, Deutscher Genossenschafts-Verlag, Impuls Systems, KKH-Allianz, Multicard, SCM Microsystems and T-Systems International. Reiner SCT Kartengeräte GmbH & Co. KG and SCM Microsystems will produce many of the interrogators used, but any company can do so if they comply with the technical guidelines (TR-03119) published by the Federal Office for Information Security.

In addition, the German government will distribute another 230,000 so-called "comfort" readers that can be used for signature applications—programs allowing individuals to provide authenticated digital signatures. These readers will be available at government-subsidized prices, in order to increase data security on the Internet, and to make sure the devices are available to a wide number of citizens.

"The idea of the stimulus package was to boost the economy by creating new infrastructure," Reisen says. "That's exactly what we're doing here, by subsidizing these RFID readers."

Each ID card will contain a SmartMX passive 13.56 MHz RFID chip manufactured by NXP Semiconductors. NXP reports that its SmartMX chip platform incorporates a number of unique security features to guard against reverse-engineering and attack scenarios with light and lasers, as well as a dedicated hardware firewall to protect specific sections on the chip. According to NXP, the version of the SmartMX chip being used was designed specifically for Germany's ID card, and is 100 percent compatible with the ISO 14443-A RFID standard.

Reisen says Germany is a technology leader with its electronic passports, and hopes to set technological and data-security standards with the new ID cards. "I have many contacts in other countries who are looking closely at what we're doing," he states. "They'll surely adapt the concept for themselves after our launch."

According to press reports, France, Poland and Holland are also planning to introduce new national ID cards in the coming years.