Bundesdruckerei Presents New Mobility Concepts

Mobile data services are leading to a flood of new applications and online services. At this year’s CeBIT, Bundesdruckerei is demonstrating the role which innovative NFC technologies and eID card concepts could have in mobile application scenarios.

“We believe that citizens should be able to use secure Internet transactions no matter where, no matter when. The idea of sensibly linking mobile phones, which we all use, and a document like the new ID card, which we all carry, could lead to a new dimension in data security and identity protection also in the field of mobile applications,” Ulrich Hamann, CEO of Bundesdruckerei GmbH, comments on his company’s latest visions for the future.

From a technological point of view, it seems as if the application examples can in fact be easily implemented. That’s because just like when it comes to the secure transfer of data between eDocuments and reading devices, contactless infrastructures with Near Field Communication (NFC) also work in the frequency range of 13.56 MHz. This means that people wishing to use services, such as the Call a Bike concept presented together with Deutsche Bahn, will only need their new ID card and a modern NFC mobile phone in order to be able to start all the required data transfers using a PIN. With a maximum range of just 10 centimeters between the transmitter and the receiver, the risk of unauthorized data access is just as low as with stationary devices.

Looking too far into the future? Certainly not. Even now, suppliers of network equipment are getting ready for mobile data volumes to explode. That means that new mobility concepts are also one of the most important future topics for the high-security industry.

Applications, such as the SecuStart project presented by Bundesdruckerei where innovative eID card systems are also used to protect against car theft, or the scenario where mobile data transfer can be used to reserve a place at an electric charging station, are just the beginning of a long series of conceivable possibilities.

Nobody is currently willing to forecast precisely if and when it will in fact be possible to use NFC mobile phones to read the new ID card which at Bundesdruckerei is the prime focus of all sample applications. There is still considerable controversy among international coordination committees regarding the harmonization of binding security standards.