Thales to provide Imprimerie Nationale with integrated electronic passport personalisation solution
The French Ministry of the Interior and Regional Development (MIAT) has appointed the Imprimerie Nationale (government printing office) to produce the countrys first personalised biometric passports. As part of this agreement, Thales will provide the Imprimerie Nationale with a complete secure system for the production and personalisation (graphic and electronic) of the new passports. Passports issued to French nationals will now incorporate an electronic chip that will store secure biometric identity and identification data.
Since 11 September 2001, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been working to increase travel document security, particularly through the integration of electronic components that can hold biometric data. The new French passports will meet ICAO recommendations and European directives. They will also be compatible with the US Visa Waiver Programme (VWP).
Based on an integrated and modular architecture, the Thales solution is highly secure. It has the capacity to personalise close to five million biometric passports per year, positioning Thales as a leader in this demanding field. Comprising modular and open building blocks, it can be configured to personalise different types of electronic chips with no effect on performance. Thales is also responsible for the secure interface that will handle production requests from the Ministry of the Interior and Regional Development and pass them to the personalisation system.
Were delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate on this project, which is highly important for France, said Pierre Maciejowski, Managing Director of Thales Security Systems. Thanks to Thales long experience in ID system integration, our teams successfully developed a highly secure personalisation solution within a very short timeframe.
In late 2005, Thales won the contract for Moroccos first smart (chip-based) national identity card. Building on this success, this latest contract with France is a further endorsement of Thales ability to design, manage, integrate and provide long-term support for innovative ID solutions incorporating the latest technological advances in biometrics and data security. The Group has over two decades of experience in secure ID solutions and has references in around twenty countries.
About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide, supported by a comprehensive services offering. The groups civil and military businesses develop in parallel to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. Leveraging a global network of more than 20,000 high-level researchers, Thales offers a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy critical information systems. Thales employs 60,000 people in 50 countries and generated revenues of 10.3 billion in 2005, with a record order book of over 20 billion.
Thales Security Systems business line designs, delivers and integrates high-technology solutions to protect critical infrastructures for local authorities and corporate and government customers worldwide. These solutions cover all aspects of security, including site and event security, security operation and crisis management centres, environmental security, secure identification solutions and information system security. The companys comprehensive services offering ranges from security consulting, architecture definition and complex systems integration to complete turnkey solutions including the design, installation, operation and maintenance of security systems.
