Ronald K Noble, Interpol's secretary-general, said that the Interpol e-identification card and e-passport booklet developed by Entrust and EDAPS provides the highest security credentials, both for Interpol staff and law enforcement officials working on behalf of the agency.
"The credentials enable officials to identify themselves at international borders, at Interpol's general secretariat or any other Interpol facility, as well as to securely communicate from virtually any fixed or mobile location in the world", he explained.
Secretary-general Noble said there is now a critical need for protection of the estimated 35 billion devices – both fixed and mobile – connected to the internet.
Interpol, he said, relies on data from its 188 member countries and must ensure that people are who they claim to be, thus helping keep data and information in the right hands.
Over at Entrust, Bill Conner, the firm's president, said the multi-purpose credentials serve as ICAO-compliant travel documents to help securely authenticate Interpol credentials at border checkpoints around the world.
"And these credentials can be tailored for any environment, whether the need is for electronic machine-readable travel documents (eMRTD) or more advanced BAC and EAC ePassports", he said.
Conner went on to say that the e-ID card also authenticates vetted digital identities for secure physical and logical access to Interpol facilities, networks, desktops and mobile devices.
"As deliberate attacks on government and enterprise identities continue to grow in number and sophistication, proper identity-based security needs to be applied", he explained.
Alexander Vassiliev, EDAPS' CEO, meanwhile, said that the Interpol e-passport booklet now incorporates security features such as laser engraving and holographic, micrographic and optical security elements.