Danish Biometrics er blevet medlem af Stork Industry Group

Stork, der er etableret i maj 2008, er et rammeprogram for konkurrenceevne og innovation, som medfinansieres af EU og  består af 29 medlemmer, som omfatter regeringer, forskningsinstitutioner samt private organisationer.

Stork tager sigte på at gennemføre et EU-dækkende interoperabelt system til anerkendelse af Eid og autentifikation, der vil gøre det muligt for virksomheder, borgere og offentlige ansatte at bruge deres nationale elektroniske identiteter i enhver medlemsstat.

Konsortiet vil også genmemføre grænseoverskridende piloter om eidentitets tjenester og lære af praksis om, hvordan sådanne tjenester rulles ud samt erfare hvilke fordele og udfordringer et EU interoperabilitetssystem til anerkendelse af eID vil bringe.

STORK´s interoperable løsning til elektronisk identifikation (eID) er baseret på en distribueret arkitektur, der vil bane vejen for fuld integration af EU’s e-tjenester under hensyntagen til de specifikationer og infrastrukturer, der allerede eksisterer i EU’s medlemsstater. Den løsning, der skal udvikles skal være robust, gennemsigtig og sikker og skalerbar, og bør gennemføres på en sådan måde, at den er bæredygtig efter pilotprojektet.

Projektet vil:
Udvikle fælles regler og specifikationer for genkendelse af eIDs på tværs af nationale grænser;
Gennemføre tests, i real life miljøer, af sikker og brugervenlige eID-løsninger for borgere og virksomheder;
Interaktion med andre EU-initiativer for at maksimere nytteværdien af eID-tjenester.

Det vil blive gjort ved at forberede og gennemføre flere piloter med tjenester, som vil have stor potentiel virkning og som er tilstrækkelig sikker, ved at gøre brug af åbne standarder, hvor det er muligt og under hensyntagen til beskyttelse af personoplysninger.

Piloterne vil teste den fælles specifikation for eID for adskillelige applikationer, der har en væsentlig indvirkning på eGovernment i hele Europa:
En demonstrator, der viser, at grænseoverskridende elektroniske tjenester kan fungere i en række medlemsstater. Applikationerne omfatter nationale portaler fra Østrig (help.gv.at), Estland (eesti.ee), Tyskland (Mein-service-BW), Portugal (portaldocidadao.pt) og Storbritanien, en regional portal fra Catalonien i Spanien og en specifik service for fælles aktiviteter for at arbejde i Belgien (limosa.be)
 
Saferchart pilotten vil bygge en platform med et sikkert online-miljø, hvor mennesker kan kommunikere online ved brug af deres eIDs og demonstrerer dets anvendelse i et omfattende pilotprojekt.

Eid eID Student Mobility pilot vil facilitere studenters mobilitet på tværs af Europa fra et universitet til et andet i en række medlemsstater. Dette vil især gøre det muligt for udenlandske studerende at få adgang til alle on line services, der tilbydes af et bestemt universitet og som gør brug af deres nationale eID-kort til eIdentification eller digital signatur.
 
eID Electronic delivery pilot vil demonstrere grænseoverskridende elektronisk levering baseret på den eksisterende indenlandske infrastruktur. Denne levering er afgørende for eGovernment med henblik på at indgå elektroniske transaktionsprocesser elektronisk herunder som anmodet af EUs service direktiv at være i stand til at gennemføre administrative procedurer fuldt elektronisk.

Change of Address for EU citizens pilot har til formål at teste brugen af eIDauthentication til støtte for den elektroniske proces for adresseændring af EU-borgere, der flytter til andre medlemsstater. Eftersom denne tjeneste har stor indflydelse på borgernes mobilitet, er den omfattet af de 20 basale serviceydelser for EU-Kommissionens i2010 eGOV handlingsplan.

For yderligere oplysning om Stork tjek: www.eid-stork.eu.

Som de første repræsenterer Danish Biometrics danske branche-interesser i Stork og med medlemskabet ser Danish Biometrics muligheder for at være med i en vidensformidling og for deltagelse i de forskellige piloter om eID og eGovernment. Samarbejdet vil være værdigfuldt som en del af processen for et dansk borgerservicekort, som forventes at blive indført indenfor de nærmest følgende år.

Danish Biometrics supports the launch of The European Privacy Institute

Danish Biometrics is involved in the launch of The European Privacy Institute.

Marking privacy as the starting point we need a synthesis between technology and privacy approaches. A key issue is how we can integrate values like privacy and ethics in future product designs and technologies in a suitable manner.

Today non-European research and development in privacy issues is concentrated on a couple of private global companies like IBM, Microsoft and KPMG and public institutions like The Canadian Privacy Institute. This is compared with a lot of European activities like PRIME, FIDIS, BITE, POORVO, Art. 29 WG among others. The initiatives are mostly temporary and done to solve specific, practical questions involving a limited number of participants only. Moreover non-coordinated but substantial research take place at University level around Europe.

Both political as well as social-ethical reasons calls for a joint and coordinated initiative with an independent, coherent and holistic scientific and academic approach on an active, diligent, and systematic process of inquiry aimed at discovering, interpreting, and revising facts about privacy put into an European context. A permanent European institute dedicated to both basic and applied research and education would be in a position to create a vibrant environment and awareness and being the motive power in developing Centres of Excellence to support both EU member states as industry. The scope and complexity of privacy and ICT require close collaboration across many disciplines and skills. It seems obvious that the Institute would be organized around a set of research themes that will address major opportunities and challenges that are too complex for individuals or even small groups of researchers to tackle on their own.

The European Privacy Institute Initiative is a formalised European network of universities, research institutions, authorities, public and private organizations and companies dedicated to launch The European Privacy Institute.

An Executive Committee has just recently been created in order to present the idea to the European Commission and Council and Parliament. A Scientific Advisory Committee has been established in order to assist the Executive Committee, to advice on statutes of the Institute and to promote the highest possible research standards. It is the intention that the Scientific Advisory Committee should have representatives from universities and research institutions from all 27 EU countries and further associated EU countries and EU candidate Countries.

Director Frederik Kortbæk, Chairman of Danish Biometrics is member of the Executive Commitee together with Professor Dr. Juliet Lodge, University of Leeds, CEO Max Snijder, European Biometrics Forum and Associate Professor Niels Christian Juul, Roskilde University, Deputy Chairman of Danish Biometrics.

The European Privacy Institute Initiative will soon have its own blog on http://www.privacyinstitute.eu

Danish biometrics and Fraunhofer Institute IGD in cooperation

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is the largest organization for applied research in Europe as it maintains roughly 80 research units, including 58 Fraunhofer Institutes, at over 40 different locations throughout Germany. A staff of some 12,500, predominantly qualified scientists and engineers, works with an annual research budget of over one billion euros. Of this sum, more than € 900 million is generated through contract research. Roughly two thirds of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft’s contract research revenue is derived from contracts with industry and from publicly financed research projects. The remaining one third is contributed by the German federal and Länder governments, partly as a means of enabling the institutes to pursue more fundamental research in areas that are likely to become relevant to industry and society in five or ten years’ time.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is also active on an international level: Affiliated research centers and representative offices in Europe, the USA and Asia provide contact with the regions of greatest importance to present and future scientific progress and economic development

Danish Biometrics and Fraunhofer Institute IGD in Darmstadt have launched a closer cooperation with special reference to further international research and development on biometrics.  Focus will be on pending projects in Denmark and new upcoming projects with the participation of Danish Biometrics, Fraunhofer Institute IGD and other international partners in a joint consortium.

Fraunhofer Institute IGD, the department Security Technology has been working on evaluation of biometric recognition since 1998. It also examines possible threats to biometrical methods and system security.  The institute has been involved in several EU projects for instance BioFace and BioFinger. The current EU 3D face project was launched in 2005 mainly on the basis of research of Fraunhofer Institute IGD. Other Fraunhofer Institutes are participating in EU research projects on biometrics too, as for example Fraunhofer Institute IAO in Stuttgart as member of the HUMABIO consortium which Danish Biometrics is affiliated to as well. It may be said that The Fraunhofer-Gesellshaft is the most important biometric research organisation in Europe and probable in the world today.

The partnership with Fraunhofer Institute IGD is of extraordinary significance to Danish Biometrics and will without doubt cement the position of the consortium as to the participation of upcoming EU initiatives on ID management and biometric in the near future.