Entrust Begins Deployment of SPOC ePassport Solution for Finland's Population Register Centre

DALLAS, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Two years ago, Entrust, Inc., was selected by the Finnish Population Register Centre (VRK) to implement an advanced Extended Access Control (EAC) ePassport solution. Now in 2010, Finland again called on Entrust, this time to deploy the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) infrastructure required by the European Union (EU) for EAC-enabled ePassports.

"By taking advantage of the latest in ePassport technology, the Finnish government continues to strengthen border security and protect the identities and well being of its citizens," said System Integrator Erkki Wuoma at the Finnish Population Register Centre. "With Entrust's EAC ePassport solution already in place, it was a natural, easy choice to also deploy a proven SPOC environment."

An important protocol developed by the EU and the former Brussels Interoperability Group (BIG), SPOC serves as the standardized mechanism for certificate management between countries for support of EAC-enabled ePassports. Each participating nation establishes a SPOC interface that acts as a front-end for domestic EAC components. International EAC certificate requests and responses are communicated directly between SPOCs.

"The Finnish government continues to be a leader within the EU in the use of electronic machine-readable travel documents to bolster identity-based border security," said Entrust President and CEO Bill Conner. "And while SPOC is a relatively new standard, Finland is helping to promote the adoption of the critical technology for the benefit of all EU member nations and their citizens."

The Finnish Population Register Centre plans to have the SPOC up and running in production by the end of the year. During the implementation, testing with other EU countries will be conducted.

In October 2009, Entrust led a critical initiative to provide the security community with an online interoperability and demonstration site that enabled countries and other third parties to test their SPOC implementations. Entrust's demonstration implemented the standardized certificate management protocol to be used across international borders, emulated a fully functional SPOC interface and enabled users to test their SPOC capabilities online.

The Entrust SPOC ePassport solution is a component of the Entrust Authority public key infrastructure (PKI) platform. Entrust provides a unique dual-rooted ePassport PKI certification authority (CA) to allow seamless migration from first-generation (BAC) deployments to second-generation (EAC) architectures. Entrust provides ePassport security for many governments, including the U.S., Finland, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Singapore, New Zealand and more.

The Finnish Population Register Centre produces personal and building data services of the highest quality, as well as identification solutions for online services to cater to the different needs of the society. The Centre develops and maintains the Population Information System, the Guardianship Register and the Public Sector Contact Directory, and provides assistance for organizing elections.

The Centre is the national Certification Authority services provider, and creates the electronic identity for Finnish citizens when providing them with a personal identity code and the electronic ID. The Centre also provides eIDs for government employees, as well as for employees in other organizations. The Centre is the only CA in Finland that issues qualified certificates as specified in the Act on Electronic Signatures and the relevant EU Directive. The Population Register Centre is also the CA provider for the first generation of ePassports in Finland.

Founded in 1969, the Population Register Centre operates under Finland's Ministry of Finance and aims to be a Reliable Service Centre for the Information Society and develop its activities to address the needs of its customers -- the government, the private sector and citizens.

About Entrust

Entrust provides identity-based security solutions that empower enterprises, consumers, citizens and Web sites in more than 4,000 organizations spanning 60 countries. Entrust's identity-based approach offers the right balance between affordability, expertise and service. For strong authentication, fraud detection, digital certificates, SSL and PKI, call 888-690-2424, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.entrust.com.

Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust, Inc. in the United States and certain other countries. In Canada, Entrust is a registered trademark of Entrust Limited. All Entrust product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Entrust, Inc. or Entrust Limited. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Bill Conner

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SOURCE Entrust, Inc.