Future Schemes for Stronger Verification of the Access Rights of Border Control Inspection Systems

As more and more biometric data is stored on ePassports, a reliable method is needed to make sure that only authorized entities have access to the information. In the current border crossing procedure, ePassports verify the access rights of the inspection system requesting access to biometric data stored on the chip of the passport. As passports are constrained devices with limited communication and computation capabilities, the verification process is weak and therefore the information privacy is at risk. We propose four schemes where the verification is performed by more powerful entities and the information privacy of the biometric data is strengthened. These novel schemes also include storing the biometric data on other entities than the passports, more specifically in online databases or mobile phones, and we investigate the privacy and security implications of each of them.