The African country Ghana has now been accepted into the ICAO Public Key Directory. Ghana has become the 79th nation listed. cryptovision has played a major role in the preparation of this achievement, providing both software solutions and consulting.
Since 2011, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been operating a database for which each authorized state provides a cryptographic key: the ICAO Public Key Directory (PKD). With the keys in this database, forged electronic identity documents can be easily detected. However, inclusion in the ICAO PKD is subject to strict conditions. In particular, the production and issuance of identity documents in the country concerned must meet high security requirements.
After Ghana fulfilled all these requirements, the ICAO included the country’s key in their PKD in mid-October. cryptovision is especially proud of this, as the Gelsenkirchen-based company has built the cryptographic infrastructure for the Ghanaian identity document (Ghana Card). For instance, the authority issuing digital certificates for the Ghana Card is operated with the cryptovision product CAmelot.
cryptovision’s client in Ghana is a public-private partnership consisting of the residents authority NIA and the Margins Group. Members of these two organizations will attend their first ICAO PKD Board meeting in Amsterdam from October 27-28.
cryptovision has been active in Africa for more than ten years and has carried out numerous projects there in the field of electronic identity documents. The inclusion of Ghana into the ICAO Public Key Directory shows again that cryptovision can build complex cryptographic solutions that meet stringent regulatory requirements.
List of PKD participants: https://www.icao.int/Security/FAL/PKD/Pages/ICAO-PKDParticipants.aspx
This text has been corrected. In the original text the term “ePassport” was used when the correct description is “electronic identity document”.