Time is running out for the old Italian ID card – a paper card sealed in plastic used solely for identification purposes. The Italian government recently introduced its ServiceCard, an ID in credit card format that is considered highly secure and can do more than help its bearer past vehicle or immigration control points.
The new services are based on a microprocessor card from Siemens and an optical memory with a capacity of 1.8 megabytes.
Italy is now the second European country – following Finland – to offer its citizens an IT-friendly alternative to the traditional identity card. By the end of the year, a million Italians will be able to use the innovative card, and the government expects this number to rise to at least 50 million in the next five years. Card owners will then have to show their cards far more often than today. At the doctor’s office, for example, to furnish medical insurance details, in the library to check out books, or when paying at a parking lot. Unmonitored identification, whereby the cardholder is identified by a computer system and not by a person, was the prerequisite for making the move from a traditional ID card to the ServiceCard.
Embedded hologram
Unmonitored identification was made possible by the sophisticated protection and processing features for the information on the microchip, which is embedded in the ServiceCard, also referred to as a ‘smart card.’ The ID card owner is identified via an offline terminal with an integrated smart card reader, via the Internet or by a remote server. The optical memory is a passive memory medium that enables embedded hologram technology and provides storage. A visible hologram is embedded in the surface of the card as a security feature for the local authorities who personalize and issue cards to their citizens. Another authentication technology, a digital signature, associates the photo on the card with the subject’s personal data and provides secure protection of all information. The introduction of Italy’s electronic ID card marks a major step toward a greater service focus and is a milestone in the transition from an old-fashioned, cumbersome administration system to modern online government services. The new cards will enable citizens not only to cast their votes electronically but also to communicate online with all their local governments.
A German company played a key role in the successful introduction of Italy’s electronic ID card. Siemens Business Services, which claims the lead in smart-card production (through the Siemens company Infineon) and the implementation of microprocessor card operating systems, cooperated with its Italian sister Siemens Informatica to play a leading role in the project.
Siemens Informatica was active on both operational fronts – the central system of the Ministry of the Interior as well as the production and initialization system at Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, the state printing facility. Siemens provided the key components for the Ministry’s central system: DirX Solutions, an intelligent directory service, the card issuing software for local governments, and the basic software libraries needed to read and write to the microchip and optical memory. It was necessary to have a directory service with the outstanding scalability offered by DirX to manage up to a hundred million users and to provide them with the services they need. “The main challenge lay in the user profiles, access rights, digital certificates and other entries that are needed to guarantee secure access to data, network resources and services,” explains Dr. Udo Bochum, head of product marketing at Meta Directory Services. “DirX Solutions from Siemens can store hundreds of millions of entries on a single server, administration is extremely fast, it supports the required security functions and is thus perfect for meeting e-business needs,” assures Dr. Bochum.
Siemens Informatica not only supplied the state printing works and mint with the first hundred thousand microchips that are to be embedded in the ID cards but also developed the basic libraries for card initialization and the interface software for the card production machines. Finally, with support from Italy’s Ministry of Health, Siemens also integrated the medical insurance card on the microchip. “The biggest challenge in the project was the security that has to be guaranteed at all levels,” explains Antonio Picilli, the sales manager responsible for Meta Directory Solutions in Italy.
Card with a fingerprint
“This meant insuring not only that the data streams are secure and the card thus incorruptible, but also that the card material is forgery-proof. Above all, it was vital to guarantee a functional security that would enable public authorities to identify their citizens beyond any doubt. And, of course, interoperability throughout the country.” Future versions of Italy’s ServiceCard will store not only the cardholder’s fingerprint but also as much information on his or her medical condition as the cardholder allows. E-government is also an issue in Germany, but in some areas there is only sluggish progress in the move towards a service-oriented government. As a result of its project “BundOnline 2005,” the German government plans to be able to offer online all the services that Federal entities provide for citizens, the states, local authorities and business by the year 2005. The objective is not only to make life easier for the business sector and German citizens – the government’s main goal is to achieve savings totalling 400 million euros.
According to the trade association BITKOM (Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und Neue Medien e.V.), however, the primary aim must be to introduce a digital citizenship card with identification and signature functions if e-government is to achieve a breakthrough. Since German companies are international market leaders in smart card technology but have implemented most of their projects outside Germany so far, BITKOM President Volker Jung voices this warning: “Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore are using German technology to widen their lead when it comes to a digital citizenship card.” He also notes that, although the technologies are already in place, there is no political support and no clear concept for it in Germany.
According to BITKOM, Germany does not do well in a European comparison of e-government, noting that Germany is positioned at the rear of the main group, which is led by Great Britain. However the press office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior sees things differently. In a study performed by management consultants Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, done as a part of the European Commission’s e-Europe benchmarking initiative, Germany achieved top grades for the availability and interactivity of its state services. Six of the nine indicator services offered by Germany’s federal government reached the maximum 100 percent of its public services. The study gave Germany top grades for its tax return and online employment services. Areas that need improvement include social benefits. However even in this sector, Germany still lies at the European average, according to the study.
Sceptics in Berlin
The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) is still sceptical about the steps that Italy has taken. According to its press office, the BMI does not plan to introduce an electronic ID or citizen card, citing data protection reasons. Nonetheless, the German cabinet decided at the beginning of the year to introduce the digital signature for the entire Federal administration. An Internet memorandum issued by the Federal Ministry of the Interior states: “In the future, citizens – as well as partners of the Federal Government in other public agencies and in the business world – will be able to handle legal and business transactions with local government securely over the Internet.
As is already standard practice in many other European countries, the electronic signature will replace handwritten signatures on forms, with encryption technologies providing protection from manipulation and unauthorized access by third parties. This decision is one key prerequisite for the continuing implementation of the “BundOnline 2005” initiative. And, who knows, maybe the German government will follow Italy’s example after all – once it is generally accepted there – and perhaps hold the elections to the Federal parliament in 2006 online, with voters using their electronic ID cards.
