Indra collaborates with MPTyAP on the stork project for interoperability among european electronic identities

Indra, the premier IT company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe, collaborates with the Spainish Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Administration (MPTyAP) on the STORK project for the European Union. The project seeks to enable electronic identities interoperability, guarantee safe and integrated access to eGovernment services in compliance with common standards.

The STORK project is within the “i2010 – A European Society for growth and employment” initiative created by European Commission in June, 2005 to work on information society’s biggest challenges until 2010. This initiative, with a development period until 2011, promotes an open digital and competitive economy with a focus on ICT to improve inclusion and quality of life. Its action plan emphasizes the need to admit other national electronic identities in order to favour integrated and safe access to eGoverment services for the citizens of the member states who are temporarily residing or living in another member state.

To achieve this, 32 identities from 14 countries: 13 of the European Union (Germany, Austria, Belgium, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, France, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Portugal, UK and Sweden) and Iceland, have joined the STORK consortium (Secure IdenTity AcrOss BoRders LinKed) with reference to the migrating bird par excellence. The consortium is co-financed by the European Union within its strategy to create Paneuropean electronic administration services.

Thanks to this initiative, the eIC and other common electronic identities in Spain such as the electronic certificates will be admitted by the electronic administrations in France, Austria, Germany, Portugal and other members of the STORK project. The Spanish administration will also be able to admit electronic identities from other countries. Unlike other electronic identity management systems, the issuing countries guarantee that the information supplied by STORK is transparent, secure and reliable.

All the information will be integrated into a platform capable of managing the 400 million identities of European citizens. It currently allows access to around 40 portals.

Indra, along with MPTyAP, leads the design, development and implementation of the platform. For this reason, the definition and development works are being coordinated by participants using trust models and national identification exchange protocols as well as identity additional information for a thorough authentication process through each country’s electronic identities.

The development of a cross-border European identification platform and its implementation in 14 members of the consortium has lasted for 2 years. Nowadays, pilots to test the validity of the solution are underway. The tests are based on six services provided by the electronic administrations of several countries: SaferChat, a cross border authentication platform which protects minors in interactive conversations; student mobility; cross-border electronic delivery of official notifications; a pilot for a change of address and a device for the European Commission so that its employees can have access to the corporate applications by means of their national identity cards. Spain will participate in two of them: change of address, a service offered by MPTyAP which informs Public Administrations of the change of domicile and the student mobility pilot, led by the Conference of Vice-Chancellors of Spanish Public Universities (CRUE).

The inclusion of credentials in Finland, Greece, Lithuania and Slovakia is also underway and the amount of portals which accept foreign credentials is being expanded.

STORK aims to homogenise and connect the identification systems of the 17 member states of the consortium without replacing the existing ones. Currently, the European Union citizens use nearly 30 million electronic Identification Cards or around 5 million other electronic certificates to have access to the electronic administration services such as subsidies, filing of the income tax, etc.

The platform has not only facilitated the complex integration of over 110 different identification systems into one (accordingly to the legal frameworks and criteria of each country) but also it has united the different interests into a common future proposal.

Facilitating the implementation of electronic administration

Indra has always proved its commitment to the computerisation of administrations and the arrival of electronic administration in order to improve the relation between institutions and citizens in a comfortable, secure and transparent environment. The IT multinational has broad experience in the design, development and implementation of integral management for institutions and has a leading position as a supplier of support services and modernisation of systems for numerous entities and organisations. For instance, we can mention the projects for applications management delivered for the General State Controller, the Generalitat Valenciana, the Community of Madrid, the Ministry of Education, the Canary Islands Government, the Regional Governments of Castilla-La Mancha, Andalusia, Galicia and others. The company has important references abroad in this sector in countries such as Argentina or Portugal.

With this project the company reaffirms its leadership in IT in the security market where the company has broad experience in the development and implementation of electronic identification systems and biometric solutions with references such as the electronic DNI and passport in Spain -one of the most ambitious and innovative experiences in the sector; the issuing of the passport, visa and resident card in Portugal, the passport in Angola and Mexico, and the passport of Panama Maritime Authority which manages the world’s largest fleet.

Indra is the premier Information Technology company in Spain and a leading IT multinational in Europe and Latin America. It is ranked as the second European company in its sector according to investment in R&D with nearly € 500 M during the last three years. In 2009 revenues reached € 2,513 M of which a 40% came from the international market. The company employs more than 30,000 professionals and has clients in more than 100 countries.