Seychelles joins ICAO PKD |30 August 2023
PS Choppy and Dr Ciaran Coralan signing the handing over certificate (Photo: Contributed)
Seychelles has become the 91st country to join the International Civil Aviation Organisation Public Key Directory. This move significantly enhances the authentication process for e-passports issued by participating countries.
The integration of Seychelles' Country Signing Certificate Authority (CSCA) into the International Civil Aviation Organisation Public Key Directory (ICAO PKD) was successfully completed by Benjamin Choppy, principal secretary of the department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) on August 24, 2023, when he handed over the Seychelles CSCA digital certificate to the deputy director for aviation security and facilitation of the ICAO, Sylvain Lefoyer, in a ceremony at the ICAO headquarters in Canada.
PS Choppy also witnessed the technical verification of the certificate, which ensured that it met all requirements and the importation of the digital certificate to the PKD at the ICAO secure facility housing the PKD and was also handed the certificate from ICAO confirming the successful incorporation in the PKD. This is part of ICAO’s process for any new country joining the PKD.
Also present at this ceremony was Dr Ciaran Coralan, the programme officer (PKD) of the ICAO who undertook the technical verification and signed the handing over certificate.
The CSCA is a crucial component used by Seychelles' immigration department to digitally sign new e-passports. The e-passport is the principal identity document used in international travel presently. The security and facilitation advantages of e-passports are grounded in the presence of an integrated closed circuit chip in the physical passport document.
According to DICT, these benefits can only be realised when border control of countries can authenticate the chip in an e-passport. If the chip cannot be authenticated at the border control of a country, the e-passport has little advantage over a traditional, non-electronic passport.
DICT stated that the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) Public Key Directory (PKD) is a central repository for exchanging the information required to authenticate electronic Machine Readable Travel Documents (eMRTDs) such as e-passports.
This authentication – usually referred to as e-passport validation – is the process of validating the authenticity and integrity of an e-passport by verifying the digital signature on the chip.
In order for the border control of a receiving state to authenticate the e-passport of a foreign traveller, the receiving state must have access to certain information from the issuing state.
“The ICAO PKD provides an efficient means for states to upload their own information and download that of other states,” adds a press release from DICT.
By playing the role of central broker for this information, the ICAO PKD ensures that information adheres to the technical standards required to achieve and maintain interoperability.
In addition, the ICAO PKD ensures that information can be exchanged reliably, in a timely manner and on an open-ended, indefinite basis, it adds.
“As part of playing this central broker role, the ICAO has a very explicit procedure that needs to be followed for a country to be included in the PKD system. This is to ensure that the information provided, in the form of a digital certificate, for authenticating the corresponding e-passport is indeed from the appropriate authority in the source country; namely the official CSCA (Country Signing Certificate Authority) of that country,” the statement adds.
In the case of Seychelles, it is DICT which has the responsibility to implement the CSCA and is responsible for its ongoing technical operation.
This aligns well with DICT being the government PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). As from 2022, the CSCA was being used in the process of digitally signing the new Seychelles e-passport or biometric passport that the immigration department had started to issue.
A technical team at DICT had also been undertaking the process to ensure that the Seychelles CSCA digital certificate can be included in the ICAO PKD.
Commenting upon his return to the department following the event in Canada, Mr Choppy said “we have successfully achieved this milestone thanks to the commitment and hard work of the DICT technical teams involved in this exercise. I thank and commend them for their excellent work.”
It is expected that in the coming months Seychelles will be featured in the PKD master list and all countries making use of the PKD can more easily authenticate the Seychelles issued e-passport.
DICT was also a key party involved in supporting the immigration department in the conceptualisation, acquisition and implementation of its new e-passport issuing system. This system came into operation last year.
Compiled from DICT press release
