ACS10692 v1
Report No: ACS10692A
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Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Study on e‐ID Infrastructure to Improve Public
Services Delivery
Electronic Identification Technical Report
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April, 2015
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GTIDR
EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC
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Table of Contents
Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... v
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 1
1.0 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Purpose .......................................................................................................................... 8
1.2 Background and Rationale ............................................................................................... 8
2.0 Methodology .................................................................................................................. 10
3.0 Lessons Learned from International Experiences.............................................................. 11
4.0 Current Identity Usage and Service Delivery Issues Faced in Vietnam ................................ 31
4.1 Understanding of Current Identity Systems in Vietnam .................................................. 31
4.2 Key Identity Issues Faced during Service Delivery in Vietnam ......................................... 35
5.0 Vision for Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework (EISDF) ...................................... 37
5.1 High-level Description of EISDF ..................................................................................... 38
5.2 Electronic Identity Services Detailed Description ............................................................ 48
5.2.1 eID Authentication Service ...................................................................................... 48
5.2.2 Electronic Know-Your-Customer Service ................................................................ 52
5.2.3 Electronic Identity Seeding Service .......................................................................... 53
5.2.4 Electronic Payment Service ..................................................................................... 54
5.2.5 ESignature Service .................................................................................................. 56
5.2.6 Mobile ID Service .................................................................................................... 57
6.0 Implementation Strategy Recommendations .................................................................... 59
6.1 Technical Recommendations ......................................................................................... 59
6.2 Institutional Recommendations ..................................................................................... 71
6.2.1 Operating Model .................................................................................................... 71
6.2.2 Organizational Structure......................................................................................... 77
6.3 Policy Recommendations ............................................................................................... 82
6.4 Communication Strategy Recommendations .................................................................. 84
6.5 Pilot Implementation Recommendations ........................................................................ 85
7.0 Budget Estimates ............................................................................................................ 90
7.1 Estimation Basis ............................................................................................................ 90
7.2 Budget Details .............................................................................................................. 90
8.0 Annexes....................................................................................................................... 102
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Annex 1 ............................................................................................................................ 103
1. Types of Identity Tokens ........................................................................................ 103
II. Service Providers’ Authentication Type Selection Criteria ........................................ 103
III. Supports Self-service and Operator-assisted Service Delivery Scenarios ................. 104
IV. Electronic Identity Seeding Utilities and Platform .................................................... 105
V. Client Utility for ESignature .................................................................................... 107
Annex 2: Demographic Data Matching Strategy and Rules ................................................. 115
I. Name Matching Rules ............................................................................................. 115
II. Address Matching Rules ......................................................................................... 116
Annex 3 ............................................................................................................................ 119
I. Standard Address Structure Proposed ......................................................................... 119
II. Encoded Usage Data .................................................................................................. 119
Annex 4 ............................................................................................................................ 123
I. Detailed Description of Technical Components of EISDP ......................................... 123
II. Organizational Structure: Roles and Responsibilities ............................................... 159
Annex 5: International Experiences ................................................................................... 176
FIGURES AND TABLES
Figure 4.1: People’s Identity Card ............................................................................................................... 31
Figure 4.2: Current Identity Authentication Process for Service Delivery .................................................. 32
Figure 5.1: Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework (EISDF) ........................................................... 37
Figure 5.2: Functional View of the Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework .................................. 48
Figure 6.1: Operating Model for Mobile ID Service – SIM Provisioning/Certificate Activation .................. 75
Figure 6.2: Mobile ID Service Usage Operating Model ............................................................................... 76
Table 1: Breakdown of Pilot Phase Budget Estimates ................................................................................ 92
Table 2: Breakdown of Pilot Phase Budget Estimates for Mobile ID Implementation ............................... 94
Table 3: Breakdown of Rollout Phase Budget Estimates ............................................................................ 96
Table 4: Breakdown of Rollout Phase Budget Estimates for Mobile ID Implementation ........................... 99
Table 5: Total Budget for EISDF Implementation ..................................................................................... 101
Figure 8.1: EISDP Deployment Architecture ............................................................................................. 124
Figure 8.2: Technical Deployment Architecture for the Development Environment and the Public Portal
.................................................................................................................................................................. 127
Figure 8.3: EISDF Physical Infrastructure Topology .................................................................................. 129
Figure 8.4: Technical Deployment Architecture for ISPA Data Center ..................................................... 137
Figure 8.5: Technical Deployment Architecture for ISCA Data Center and PoS ....................................... 140
Figure 8.6: SIM Card Provisioning Technical Architecture ........................................................................ 150
Figure 8.7: User Registration/Certificate Activation Technical Architecture ............................................ 151
Figure 8.8: Mobile ID Usage Technical Architecture ................................................................................. 152
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Abbreviations
Abbreviation Expanded Form
AEBA Aadhaar Enabled Bank Account
AES Advanced Encryption Standard
AITA Authority of IT Applications
ANSI American National Standard Institute
APB Aadhaar Payment Bridge
API Application Programming Interface
ASA Authentication Service Agency
ATM Automated Teller Machine
AUA Authentication User Agency
BC Banking Correspondent
BFD Best Finger Detection
BIN Bank Identification Number
BoV Bank of Vietnam
CA Certification Authority
CBS Customers/Beneficiaries/Subscribers
CBS Core Banking System
CIC Credit Information Center
CIDR Central Identities Data Repository
CMB Citizen Migration Board
CRIDS Central Resident e-Identity Data Store
CRL Certificate Revocation List
CSP Certificate Service Providers
DDoS Distributed Denial of Service
DDSVP Demographic Data Standards and Verification Procedure
DIT Department of Information and Technology
DMZ Demilitarized Zone
DoB Date of Birth
DoS Denial of Service
EESA ESignature Act
DSS Decision Support System
ESS ESignature Service
ECB Electronic codebook
EIDAV Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam
eDocument Electronic Document
eEBA eID-enabled Bank Account
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Abbreviation Expanded Form
EHR Electronic Health Record
eID Electronic Identity
EISDF Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework
EISDP Electronic Identity Service Delivery Platform
eKYC Electronic Know Your Customer
EMS Enterprise Monitoring Software
ePayment Electronic Payment
ePB eID Payment Bridge
eSP eID Seeding Platform
FIR Fingerprint Image Resolution
FIPS Federal Information Processing Standards
FMR Fingerprint Minutiae Resolution
GB Gigabyte
GbE Gigabit Ethernet
GoV Government of Vietnam
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
HMAC Hash-based Message Authentication Code
HTTP Hyper-text Transmission Protocol
HTTPS Hyper-text Transmission Protocol Secure
HVAC Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IDA Identity Documents Act
IIR Iris Image Resolution
IP Internet Protocol
ISCA Identity Service Consumer Agency
ISMS Information Security Management System
ISO International Standards Organization
ISPA Identity Service Provider Agency
IT Information Technology
ITU International Telecommunication Union
IVR Interactive Voice Response
KYC Know Your Customer
KYR Know Your Residence
LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LoB Line of Business
LPG Liquid Petroleum Gas
MB Megabyte
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Abbreviation Expanded Form
MBPS Megabits per Second
MIC Ministry of Information and Communications
MIS Management Information System
MISP Managed Identification Service Provider
MIT Ministry of Information Technology
MoE Ministry of Environment
MoET Ministry of Education and Training
MoF Ministry of Finance
MoH Ministry of Health
MoLISA Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs
MNO Mobile Network Operator
MPS Ministry of Public Security
NAF National eAuthentication Framework
NEPS National Electronic Payment Service
NESP National Electronic Identity Seeding Platform
NFC Near Field Communication
NID National Identity System
NIDAV National Identity Authority of Vietnam
NIN National Identification Number
NIPS Network Intrusion Protection System
NISDF National Identity Service Delivery Framework
NISDP National Identity Service Delivery Platform
NREGS National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
NSP Network Service Provider
OCSP Online Certificate Status Protocol
OTA Over-the-air
OTP One-time Password
PAN Permanent Account Number
PC Personal Computer
PDCA Plan-Do-Check-Act
PDPA Personal Data Protection Act
PID Personal Identity Data
PIN Personal Identification Number
PKCS Public Key Cryptographic Standards
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
PoA Proof of Address
PoI Proof of Identity
PoP Points of Presence
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Abbreviation Expanded Form
PoS Point of Sales
PPP Public Private Partnership
PSU Public Service Undertaking
PUB Publication
PUE Power Usage Effectiveness
PUK Personal Unblocking Key
QA Quality Assurance
RA Registration Authority
RAM Random Access Memory
RDBMS Relational Database Management System
RPM Revolution per Minute
SAN Storage Area Network
SAS Serial-attached SCSI
SBV State Bank of Vietnam
SDK Software Development Kit
SHA Secure Hash Algorithm
SI Solution Integrator
SIM Subscriber Identification Module (in physical, software or other forms)
SLA Service-Level Agreement
SMS Short Message Service
SMSC Short Message Service Center
SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
SQL Structured Query Language
SSCD Secure Signature Creation Device
SSL Secure Socket Layer
SSO Single Sign-on
STQC Standardization Testing and Quality Certification
TA Technical Assistance
TB Terabyte
ToR Top of Rack
TPS Transactions per Second
TSP Trusted Service Provider
TSP Timestamp Service Provider
UID Unique Identification Number
UIDAI Unique Identification Authority of India
UPS Uninterrupted Power Source
URL Uniform Resource Locator
USSD Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
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Abbreviation Expanded Form
VGCA Vietnam Government Certification Authority
VM Virtual Machine
VNPT Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group
VSS Vietnam Social Security
W3C World Wide Web Consortium
WPKI Wireless Public Key Infrastructure
XAdES XML Advanced Electronic Signatures
XML Extensible Markup Language
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Executive Summary
Government ministries and private sector organizations in Vietnam today face the challenge of
having a unique identification number for identifying and authenticating residents at service
delivery. The Government of Vietnam (GoV) recognizes this challenge, and is proactively piloting
a new National Identity System (NID)
GoV has also has expressed interest in exploring the deployment of a full-fledged electronic
identity-based service delivery framework. Such an electronic system could be developed based
on the new NID system being piloted. In response to GoV’s request, the World Bank is conducting
a Technical Assistance (TA) activity to define the vision and strategy, and provide
recommendations pertaining to its implementation. The study pays close attention to innovative
Electronic Identity (eID) systems to enhance the accountability and efficiency of the service
delivery.
The vision and implementation strategy suggested for the Electronic Identity-based Service
Delivery Framework (EISDF) in Vietnam was developed based on the experiences of countries like
India, Estonia and Belgium. The current state of Vietnam’s information technology (IT)
infrastructure and her institutional framework were also taken into consideration.
The lessons learned from international experiences cover key concepts such as the: (i) extension
of the national identity system capabilities to include elD; (ii) eID profile of the resident which
comprises of a unique National Identification Number (NIN), linked to demographic and biometric
data that is accessible online; (iii) eID profile and NIN creation as a centralized biometric and
deduplication process at the national level to ensure uniqueness; and (iv) eID profile could clearly
establish the resident’s identity to public and private agencies across the country, although it
may not necessarily be used to prove citizenship.
The eID authentication service is one of the key offerings of a central identity authority on a
national infrastructure. The purpose of eID authentication is to enable eID-holders to prove their
identity digitally and online, and for service providers to be able to confirm the residents’ identity
claim in order to correctly deliver services and benefits. Other key services offered include eID
seeding where the NIN is embedded in the service provider databases; electronic Know-Your-
Customer (eKYC) process; electronic payment (ePayment); secure electronic document
(eDocument); and mobile ID.
The technical learning involves setting up a highly secure Central Resident eID Data Store (CRIDS)
to collect the demographic and biometric data gathered from the enrollment process following a
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procedure of deduplication. The subsequent NIN is generated at random to prevent fraud and
theft. The biometric data ensure uniqueness and are required to be used in conjunction with the
demographic data.
The eID processes, such as eID authentication, eKYC, mobile ID, etc., may be exposed as a
stateless web services emanating from the centralized eID infrastructure and extracting
information from the CRIDS. The eID authentication may be single- or multiple-factor, and factors
may be demographic, biometric, one-time password (OTP), digital certificate, or their
combination. The interoperability of biometric authentication is supported by defining biometric
device specifications, data standards and common software development kit (SDK), and
application programming interface (API) across multiple device vendors. The IT infrastructure for
running eID processes could be supported by fulltime domestic in-house technical capacity and
in-country proven technology from local vendors. The design of the proposed eID system could
ease the integration of existing/planned services of the GoV with those of the private sector.
The use of mobile ID would simplify eID authentication and eSignatures, by replacing the smart
card and reader with the mobile phone and specialized SIM (could be a physical card, software,
or other relevant subscriber identification mechanisms) issued to residents. The mobile ID could
use biometrics or digital certificate with the implementation of a wireless public key infrastructure
(wPKI) and the mobile gateway of a nationalized mobile network operator (MNO). The biometrics
or digital certificate type authentication and eSignatures could use communication model-based
services on the common standardized workflows, document format and open standards
technologies. The GoV could set up a one-stop eGovernment portal for eServices offered by the
various government agencies, and act as the gateway to all public offices.
The institutional learning also suggests an organizational structure with two separate
government bodies: the overall regulator and overseer of eID services. The individual identity
remains unique and independent of the service provided. There could be a cross-ministerial apex
committee at the highest level of government as the decision makers for eID and related issues.
A scalable public-private partnership (PPP) organizational structure would be needed to deliver
highly secure and high-quality eID. A strong level of security is achieved by restricting direct
access to the online eID process to a few authorized organizations defined as an eID service
provider agency (ISPA); and only an eID consumer service provider (ISCA) registered under the
former may request identity information for delivery.
The mobile ID, biometrics or digital certificate, and eSignature may require a PPP organizational
structure to issue mobile ID SIM and activate them. These responsibilities could be assigned to
one − or more − nationalized MNO, and they could include the generation of biometrics or digital
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certificates and timestamps to the certificate service provider (CSP) and timestamp service
provider (TSP), respectively. The eSignature Act (EESA) could define the roles and responsibilities
pertaining to the issuance of eSignatures. The GoV creates the standard committees − with
members from both public and private sectors − and defines the standards such as demographic
and biometric data, technology and business processes.
The operating model learning necessitates the fresh enrollment of residents for eID. This is
recommended − in lieu of reusing previous data entered by different government departmental
applications − to ensure high-quality data. The eID is based on a secure and scalable PPP-based
operating model wherein only the ISPA (public or private) has direct access. The ISCA, in turn,
calls its designated ISPA for assistance with retrieving the eID information to fulfill its service
delivery function. The central government agency responsible for eID could host a public-facing
portal to build technical awareness and to provide technical support to the user-agencies. There
could be a certification process for biometric devices to ensure their compliance with GoV
specifications.
The operating model for mobile ID is also PPP-based, with the mobile ID provided by one or more
operators through local outlets. The resident could activate the service on the handset with the
new specialized SIM. The service provider could request the eID from the resident through short
message service (SMS) using a TSP, referring to the global system for mobile communications
(GSM) subscriber number, and/or require the entry of a personal identification number (PIN) for
authentication. The GoV could set up round-the-clock call centers and online services, such as
DocStop and CheckDoc, to prevent frauds.
The policy intervention learning suggests the creation or update of the Identity Documents Act
(IDA) to establish national guidelines for the creation of the NIN, the National Identity System
(NID) card, and the eID. It could grant the eID equal value to the paper-based identity document.
The ESA could make digital and paper-based handwritten signatures legally equivalent. The
Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) could also be updated to regulate the use of personal data
and databases by public authorities and private agencies. The service providers in both the public
and private sectors may also update their KYC norms to include eID and eKYC functions.
Currently, the most common Proof of Identity (PoI) used by service providers in both the public
and private sectors is the People’s Identity Card issued to residents by the Ministry of Public
Security (MPS). Reliance on this card proves to be a challenge as it is paper-based and issued at
the provincial level, with no mechanism to ensure its uniqueness at the national level. As a result,
service providers may ultimately find this practice costly due to inconsistent and duplicate
identities. The paper-based identity card also results in a greater risk of identity theft.
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There is a need for the development of a more robust and effective national identity system. This
could entail a national-level unique identity creation process based on an EISDF. Such a system
is currently under implementation by GoV.
There is also a demand for a national eID for Vietnam residents for Internet-use purposes. This
will encourage the use of eGovernment, foster innovation in public and private eServices, and
strengthen cybersecurity. The eID will enable residents to request and receive services and
benefits from public and private sector agencies anywhere, anytime, and using any device without
the need to be physically present for identity authentication purposes.
The proposed vision for the EISDF would include services such as authentication, seeding, eKYC,
eSignature, ePayment, and mobile ID. The eID could support different types of standardized
tokens based on: (i) “what the user has” such as mobile/OTP/biometrics/digital certificate; (ii)
“what the user knows” such as a PIN; and (iii) “who the user is” such as fingerprints and iris
images.
The implementation strategy for the EISDF would entail the setting up of a shared, centralized IT
infrastructure and common services platform called the eID Service Delivery Platform (EISDP). The
EISDP will be used for delivering eID services and common applications to service providers in
order to uniquely identify residents. The key components of this centrally hosted platform are a
common public portal as the online one-stop shop for all eID services, and common applications
such as CRIDS, Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS), Fraud
Analytics, and ISCA/ISPA registration.
The IT infrastructure consisting of hardware and software could be deployed in data centers to
run the applications and eID services. The physical infrastructure would include the Electronic
Identity Authority of Vietnam (EIDAV) data center, the EIDAV disaster recovery data center
(geographically separate from the EIDAV data center) and the NID system's data center. The
safety and security systems include an end-to-end IT network, hardware and software security
systems, and physical infrastructure with multiple-level safeguards designed to limit entry to
authorized personnel using biometric data.
Each ISPA could set up a data center with the required IT infrastructure, software applications and
secure network connectivity to the EIDAV data center to access eID services. Each ISCA could also
set up a data center for hosting its online service delivery applications and Point of Sales (PoS)
terminals where the resident could go to avail of services. The ISCA sets up the required IT
network to connect its outlets to its data center, and then to the ISPA data center to forward its
eID service request to the EISDP, before receiving the response the same way back.
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The institutional framework includes operating model recommendations such as the creation of
a separate agency, EIDAV, operating under a responsible ministry for eID, and as the owner and
overseer of the EISDF and eID services. The responsible ministry would could delegate the
responsibility of designing, implementing and managing the operations to EIDAV,, that will serve
as the managed identification service provider (MISP). The public or private sector agencies
wishing to use eID services in their delivery process could register as an ISCA. The ISCA could be
enabled by an ISPA to access the services via the latter’s network. Only an ISPA, public or private,
may register with EIDAV for direct access to eID information to ensure high-level security for the
centralized database. The service provider would be responsible for seeding the NIN into its own
database; it is also responsible for the digitization and centralization of its database. EIDAV could
provide eID tools and guidance to support the service provider in the seeding process. The four
main operating functions for mobile ID service could be SIM provisioning, certification/user
activation, usage, and termination.
The institutional recommendations touch on defining and allocating key roles to the elements of
the organizational structure. EIDAV, operating under a responsible ministry for eID, could have
the key role as the owner and overseer of the implementation and operational management of
the EISDF and eID services. An MISP could be responsible for implementing the EISDF on behalf
of EIDAV. An ISPA could be a public or private sector agency tasked with establishing a secure
connectivity with EIDAV data center to transmit eID authentication requests on behalf of an ISCA,
and then receive response back from eID authentication servers to ensure high-level security.
The ISCA could be a public or private service-providing agency seeking to use eID services, and
the eID-holder could be a resident who has been issued an eID by EIDAV. The key players in the
delivery of mobile ID service, apart from those described above, could be the registration
authority (RA), such as an MNO responsible for the provisioning of specialized SIM to the
residents; a trusted service provider (TSP) that is also a mobile operator, but responsible for
forwarding the mobile ID service request response from EIDAV to the mobile phone of the
resident; and a certification authority (CA) responsible for the issuance and validation of
certificates and signed data in response to the TSP service request.
The policy recommendations consist of updating or creating a new IDA to establish the national
guidelines for the issuance of the NIN, ensuring that the eID has the same legal value as the NID
card, updating the ESA to use the EISDF eID services for the delivery of eSignatures, and
establishing that the eSignature has the same legal value as that of the handwritten kind.
For the eKYC response to be treated as a valid legal equivalent of a paper-based document, the
relevant policies in the government may need to be updated. The service providers in both the
public and private sectors could update their KYC norms to include the NIN/eID, and accept the
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eKYC response as the valid KYC. The existing national open standards policy to promote
interoperability could be updated to include demographic and biometric attributes for the eID
profile of the resident in the metadata and data standards, and open standards for biometric data
such as fingerprint images, fingerprint minutiae and iris images. A PDPA may need to be enacted
to regulate the use of personal information by public authorities and private entities.
The proposed communication strategy for building awareness and promoting the adoption of the
framework among key stakeholders includes setting up a public-facing portal, online and
classroom trainings, capacity-building programs targeted at residents and officials/operators,
promotions and incentive programs, technical documentation targeted at software professionals
and technical decision makers who may be interested in availing of eID services.
The implementation of the EISDF may be done in two phases: the pilot and complete rollout. The
pilot phase will see the establishment of the EISDF; and the responsibility of establishing EIDAV
could be delegated to the responsible ministry. This will entail setting up the EIDAV data center
and migrating the residents’ data from the MPS’s current pilot project to the CRIDS. It could also
include the implementation of the following functions: eID authentication, eKYC, eID seeding,
and mobile ID. There could be two ISCAs and one ISPA. For mobile ID, EIDAV could delegate the
design and implementation to either Viettel or the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group
(VNPT) that could take up the role of the RA and TSP.
The elevated budget estimate for the design and implementation of the pilot project and the
complete rollout is for guidance only. It provides for the possible magnitude of investment
required for the EISDF’s design and implementation. The total investment for the pilot phase
design, implementation and operations management for one year (without the implementation
of mobile IDs) is estimated at USD 54 million. That includes the setup and implementation of the
IT and institutional infrastructures for the centralized EIDAV, one ISPA and two ISCAs. Each ISCA
could have one service delivery outlet in the urban district of Hanoi. The ISPA selected for the
pilot may be Viettel or VNPT; and the ISCA may be the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) or the Bank
of Vietnam (BoV). The RA and TSP could be Viettel or VNPT. The demographic and biometric data
to be stored in EIDAV’s CRIDS could be imported from the database with resident data captured
for its current national identity system pilot. It is estimated that the pilot-captured data covers at
least for one million residents. The budget estimate for the pilot is based on the delivery of
100,000 mobile IDs. The total investment for the complete rollout in five years of operations is
estimated at USD 192 million. This estimate would include augmentation to the capacity of the
IT and institutional infrastructures set up during the pilot. Also to be added are one more ISPA
and about 20 more ISCAs with expected outlets of 124 (one per province and one per 10 districts)
each. Ten additional RAs would be set up with 100 outlets for each RA, and two additional TSPs.
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Also included in the cost are the capacity-building efforts, and setup of the framework standards
and government policies that would be required for the implementation of the EISDF and the eID.
The total budget for the design and the implementation of the two phases without the
implementation of optional mobile ID is estimated at USD 246 million.
The budget estimates for the implementation of the optional mobile IDs in the pilot phase is an
additional USD 4 million. This would include the delivery of 100,000 mobile IDs, one RA and one
TSP in the pilot phase. The budget estimates for the implementation of the optional mobile IDs
in the rollout phase is USD 61 million. This would include the delivery of 90 million mobile IDs,
two RAs, one TSP and 124 RA service delivery outlets each. The eID and eID services could not
be viewed as a standalone project. Rather the recommendations for eID and eID services will
require a strong national ID foundation, especially in the areas of legislation, policies and
standards, for a successful implementation.
This document could serve as the foundation for developing a detailed EISDF vision and
implementation plan. The effective implementation of the EISDF would require a detailed
breakdown of its high-level architecture into its technical components, taking into consideration
the detailed as-is status of the IT infrastructure. A detailed implementation plan would also
require policy and organizational structures, an operating model, infrastructure resources, and a
phased rollout of the components.
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1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
This study proposes the vision and implementation recommendations for the Electronic Identity-
based Service Delivery Framework (EISDF) in Vietnam. It also delineates the roles to be played by
the diverse stakeholders (private, public, development community, etc.) in the field. The study
recommends various relevant and innovative Electronic Identity (eID) services that can be
implemented to transform and enhance the accountability and efficiency of service delivery across
sectors. These recommendations are based on the stocktaking of international experiences and
identified possibilities based on the country assessment. Special emphasis is placed on eID
systems that operate on mobile phones, and on those that have the potential of being scaled up
by both the public and private sectors in Vietnam.
1.2 Background and Rationale
Evidence shows that national eID service delivery systems offer a variety of benefits to individuals,
businesses and governments. The expansion of national identity systems to eID using digital and
biometric technologies can widen the scope of formal identification systems that is a prerequisite
to development. Clearly, the inability to authenticate one’s self inhibits an individual’s access to
basic rights and services from the public and private sectors.
The eID is considered a key enabler of innovation in the public and private sectors as they
facilitate greater electronic authentication; it also facilitates improved value services that require
a high level of security assurance. The use of eID has economic benefits in terms of reducing
costs and increasing productivity in the public sector, as well as fostering usability of online
services. Increased trust or assurance with regard to identities online − even bi-directional trust
between parties transacting or communicating online – gives all participants an all-around edge.
The eID systems can help reduce identity fraud and enable individuals to avail of services more
securely in a variety of contexts as in mobile banking and mobile applications for health care.
Because identity theft is becoming a substantial challenge, governments from various parts of
the world are putting in place eID-based service delivery systems. Such systems facilitate the
delivery of benefits to those entitled, e.g., the poorest of the poor (those eligible to receive social
benefits, disaster relief aid, etc., as in Kenya or Pakistan) and older people (for instance,
pensioners in Nigeria). They also make possible the delivery of services like conditional cash
transfers (for educational purposes like in India and Tanzania).
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The private sector’s role in deploying eID-based service delivery infrastructure could be critical
because it can potentially ensure the financial viability and sustainability of the project. A number
of countries, such as Belgium, Estonia and India, have successfully deployed eID systems based
on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models.
Most of the government ministries and private sector organizations in Vietnam today face the
challenge of not having a unique identity designation for every resident. This could be due to the
lack of a centrally generated national system of uniquely identifying a resident. The current
national identity card is issued at the commune level; therefore, the identification number issued
to the resident is not unique across the country.
Given this context, the Government of Vietnam (GoV) has expressed interest in exploring the
deployment a full-fledged Electronic Identity-based Service Delivery Framework (EISDF). GoV is
already piloting a new national identity system. In addition, the GoV is putting in place the
necessary prerequisites for its deployment: a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and the issuance of
compulsory national identity cards. The GoV is also planning to develop a National
eAuthentication Framework (NAF) that will create the much-needed enabling environment for
users to access government services and social benefits using eID. Going forward, the GoV is
keen to leverage these infrastructures to maximize public investment and strengthen
eGovernment and public service delivery to Vietnamese citizens, especially the poorest.
Given this background, the study aims to provide the vision and implementation strategy for eID-
based service delivery in Vietnam. The study also pays special attention to innovative identity
services to enhance the accountability and efficiency of service delivery. It will showcase such
systems, and offer options for sharing risks, investments and benefits through PPP.
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2.0 Methodology
The methodology of this study is based on a three-step approach, consisting of the following
activities.
1. Review international eID-based service delivery experiences. This is necessary in order
to determine the key factors that affect the implementation and adoption of eID, and to
identify best practices applicable to Vietnam based on common eID concepts, technical
and institutional aspects, and policies.
2. Define the vision for eID in Vietnam based on the lessons learned from international
experiences.
3. Propose recommendations on the eID vision and implementation strategy based on the
analysis of the current availability of information technology (IT) infrastructure and
institutional framework in Vietnam.
The study’s mode of research is described below.
1. Gather secondary data through desktop and field research in collaboration with the
relevant stakeholders.
2. Gather information about international best practices through desktop research,
particularly information related to international eID-based service delivery.
3. Conduct extensive in-country consultations with key stakeholders to gather their
understanding and suggestions for implementation. This includes gathering information
on the current national identity system, related information and communication
technology initiatives, the enabling environment and infrastructure.
4. Collect inputs from key stakeholders, collaborate with relevant players in related activities,
and promote the findings among relevant institutions such as the various ministries -
notably the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Information and Communications,
Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Education and Training, Ministry
of Justice, Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development). Other players include the Authority of IT Applications (AITA), the
State Bank of Vietnam, private banks, major telecommunications companies, and the
Vietnam Government Certification Authority.
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3.0 Lessons Learned from International Experiences
The Government of Vietnam (GoV) has various options to implement Electronic Identity (eID)
services. Some of the key findings in terms of the common concepts, as well as technical and
institutional aspects, that could impact implementation are described below based on
experiences of the countries studied; namely India, Estonia and Belgium. Annex 5 provides
detailed description of the respective experiences of these countries.
Common Concepts. Some of the common concepts in eID services learned from the experiences
of India, Estonia and Belgium are discussed below.
1. National Identity System Extended to Include Electronic Identity. The NID system of a
country could be extended to support eID that is verifiable online. The key benefit is the
availability of mobile identity (ID) which enables service providers to authenticate
individuals as the same and unique person, anywhere and anytime. It also supports
removal of duplicate and fake identities thereby enabling higher scalability of services,
allowing service agencies to use multiple channels for service delivery, reducing
beneficiary harassment and rent-seeking due to reduced dependency on manual
processes, supporting more efficient service delivery, providing an electronic audit trial,
and reducing cost and risk of identity theft.
a. The NID of a resident could be extended to include a unique eID profile which
comprises a unique NIN linked to a resident’s demographic and biometric data
that is accessible online.
b. The creation of a national eID profile with the NIN would be a centralized process
with biometric deduplication at the national level to enable a unique identification
acceptable to all service providers in the public and private sectors as legal Proof
of Identity (PoI). There would be an infrastructure for the creation of the NID
system and the delivery of eID services.
c. The NIN and eID would prove the identity of an individual, but not the citizenship
of a resident (e.g., India case).
d. The NIN would identify a resident and provide means to clearly establish the
identity to public and private agencies across the country. The three key
characteristics of the NIN would be permanency (it remains the same during the
entire resident’s lifetime), uniqueness (no two residents may have the same NIN)
and global usage (the same identifier can be used across applications and
domains).
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2. Electronic Identity Authentication. The purpose of eID authentication is to enable eID-
holders to prove their identity digitally and online; and for service providers to be able to
confirm the resident’s identity claim to facilitate service delivery and access to benefits.
a. The NIN and eID authentication process would be used by service providers to
establish presence and proof of service delivery, and Know-Your-Customer (KYC)
credential. It would also serve as a unifier of resident-centric information.
b. The eID authentication enables beneficiary confirmation to ensure that services
are being delivered to the right people. It would also supports attendance tracking
in cases where wages are linked to actual number of days a beneficiary reports for
the program.
c. The eID authentication supports identity and address verification for establishing
KYC credential which is a key requirement for enrolling or opening an account for
a new customer. The use of the eID authentication would substantially reduce the
cost of the KYC process. It would also be used as general proof of identity for
standard security-related requirements in such places as airports, hotels, and
other establishments; and as identity proof in school examinations. It would also
be used for demographic data and address verification in service delivery
databases which would help in database cleansing and management.
3. Seeding of the National Identity Number. In order for service providers to leverage eID
assistance in delivering their product, they would have to first capture the unique NIN of
their customers, beneficiaries, and subscribers (CBS). Once this is obtained, the service
providers will then map and store it with their own unique identifier (e.g., customer or
beneficiary number) in their respective databases. The process by which the NINs of the
CBS are included in the database of a service provide is referred to as eID seeding. The
seeding process would necessarily be preceded by digitization and centralization of
information in the database of the service provider, and would support both the top-down
and organic methods.
a. The top-down method would use existing personal data of the resident from a
previous enrollment process and would not require direct contact with the
resident. However, the organic method would require the service provider to
contact the resident, or vice-versa, for the seeding process to take place. The
completion of the seeding process would be followed by demographic or biometric
authentication, especially when no direct update of the service delivery database
is enabled.
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b. The seeding process would be designed to handle common challenges of service
delivery databases. This includes incomplete data or repeated information across
different data sources or languages.
c. The owner-government agency would provide a centralized seeding platform and
seeding utilities that can be used by the service providers to perform the process
accurately, faster and seamlessly. This would be critical for a faster adoption of
eID-enabled service delivery.
4. Providing Support Groups and Artifacts. The owner-government agency would build
support groups and a set of artifacts to help the service providers to adopt and implement
the eID service delivery process. The support groups would include the application
support team, empanelled consultants, and software vendors to help the service providers
build the necessary processes and applications. The support documents for guidance on
leveraging and integrating eID into the service provider solutions would include
applications onboarding and readiness, the authentication framework, operating model
and guidelines, criteria, checklists and activity templates for becoming an Identity Service
Consumer Agency (ISCA) or an Identity Service Provider Agency (ISPA), and eID seeding to
embed the NIN.
5. Terminal Devices. Terminal devices would be employed by ISCAs (both public and private)
to provide services to residents. Examples include micro-ATM devices, PoS devices and
terminals, ATMs and Access Security devices. These devices would host the applications
of the ISCA and support the mechanism to capture biometrics of residents for eID
authentication purposes. Any additional features of these terminal devices would depend
on specific needs of services offered by the ISCAs. These devices would comply with
specifications issued by the government to protect all the demographic and biometric
information provided by the residents.
6. Electronic Know-Your-Customer Process. The eKYC process verifies the identity of a
customer. The service providers would perform the process electronically with explicit
authorization of the resident. This would allow instant and paperless service delivery to
residents. The government could implement the eKYC process by using the same
infrastructure and operating model set up for eID authentication.
a. In the eKYC process, residents would authorize the government through eID
authentication using either biometrics or One-Time Password (OTP) to provide to
service providers their demographic data, along with their photograph, digitally
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signed and encrypted. This would help the service providers to perform a
paperless and realtime KYC process.
b. The eKYC process would enable service providers to make instant delivery to
residents that, otherwise, may take a number of days for activation pending
verification of related documents.
c. The use of the eKYC process would avoid the cost of repeated KYC processing, the
cost of paper handling and storage, and the risk of forged proof of identity and
proof of address documents.
7. Electronic Payment Service. The government could implement the eID-based electronic
payment mechanism (ePayment) to promote transparency, accountability, efficiency and
correct targeting in the payment of government program benefits such as social security
pension, health benefits, etc., to the intended benefits.
a. The ePayment would also facilitate seamless transfers of all welfare scheme
payments to a beneficiary’s eID-enabled Bank Account (eBA). The eBA can be
viewed as a regular bank account which is identifiable through the beneficiary’s
electronic ID.
b. At the time of enrollment for eID, residents would provide their existing bank
account details or request for the opening of a new bank account that would be
attached to their NIN for all welfare scheme payments.
c. The ePB would have a database housing a repository of residents’ NIN and their
corresponding eBA. This database would be used for social security and
entitlement payments from various government agencies.
d. The solution to financial inclusion would contain the combination of the NIN as a
payment address and the eKYC function for instant account creation using the
eID-enabled payments infrastructure. The pilot phase should address key issues
with regards to the account creation process and procedures, and \assess the
implications of using the NIN as an account identifier for the national payment
system.
e. Using the NIN as the payment address, the money is sent to any resident,
irrespective of whether they have a bank account or not. If the receiver has an eBA,
the money would be transferred into it. If the receiver does not have an eBA, an
instant account would be created, on the basis of the NIN, with a debit freeze.
Money transferred would be credited to the instant account. The instant account
would be activated during the first withdrawal on the basis of the eKYC function.
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8. Official Email Address of Residents. The government could provide an official email
address to each resident. The email address would be used for official government
communications, but it could also be used for private communications. The government-
provided email address would act as a relay, and residents could specify an email account
at the time of enrollment where messages may be delivered. All email addresses could be
publicly listed on the government’s national registry of certification service providers.
9. Secure Electronic Document Service. The government could provide secure eDocument
service to enable safe transport of electronic files in an unsafe environment, i.e., the
Internet. The service would offer the functionality to encrypt and decrypt eDocuments
using the biometrics or digital certificate mapped to the eID profile of the resident. For
further details, refer to the Estonia experience in Annex 5.
10. Mobile ID Services. The government could provide mobile ID service to registered eID-
holders which would be used for eAuthentication and digital signing with a mobile phone.
In this scenario, the mobile phone with SIM (refers to cards, software or other subscriber
identification mechanisms) functions simultaneously as the identity card and the card
reader.
a. When using mobile ID service, the resident would get a specialized SIM that
enables the service. This would be obtained by signing a service contract with a
designated national mobile operator.
b. The mobile ID may be used anywhere in the world where there is mobile coverage.
There would be no need to install the software on the computer for it to work. The
software would be installed on the SIM of the mobile phone. It may be used on the
latest mobile phones. As smart phone technology becomes more widespread,
having the mobile ID option would become increasingly handy, allowing the user
to vote, for instance, via a phone’s web browser.
Technical Aspect. Some of the technical learnings in the implementation of eID-based service
delivery derived from the study of international experiences detailed in Annex 5 are listed below.
1. Defining Unique and Secure National Electronic Identity.
a. Uniqueness as Crucial Attribute. The national eID profile of the resident would
include the unique NIN linked to the demographic and biometric data stored in the
Central Resident eID Data Store (CRIDS).
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b. Use of Intelligence is Unwise. Loading intelligence into identity numbers would
make them susceptible to fraud and theft. Therefore, the NIN would be a unique
random number assigned to the resident and may not contain any intelligence.
c. Data Collection through Nationwide Enrollment. The first step in the issuance of a
national eID would be the enrollment process where a resident’s demographic and
biometric information may be collected. The uniqueness of the data provided
would be established through a process called deduplication. After deduplication,
the NIN would be issued and a letter would be sent to the resident with the
information details.
d. Biometric Deduplication for Uniqueness. Ensuring uniqueness means assigning
one NIN to each person, and one person has only one unique identity number. A
resident profile would undergo the rigorous demographic and biometric
deduplication process with 99.99 percent accuracy before being assigned a unique
identity number. Demographic data alone cannot guarantee uniqueness. However,
unique identity may be possible by linking demographic attributes with biometric
attributes like fingerprints and iris images from the individual.
2. Leveraging CRIDS in Electronic Identity Authentication.
a. The eID authentication process would be exposed as stateless web service over
hyper-text transmission protocol secure (HTTPS). The usage of open data format
in extensible markup language (XML) and widely used protocol such as hyper-text
transmission protocol (HTTP) would allow easy adoption and deployment of eID
services.
b. The eID authentication process would work by taking the NIN along with eID-
holder’s personal identity data as the input and, in turn, sending that input to the
CRIDS for matching, following which the CRIDS verifies the correctness on the
basis of a 1:1 match with the eID-holder’s identity information. The service either
confirms the proof of identity, or verifies the information provided by the resident.
To protect the resident’s privacy, the service responds only with a “yes/no”; no
personal identity information is given as part of the response.
c. The eID authentication process would be made available to the residents to prove
their identity online anywhere, anytime and in multiple modes. It would support
single-factor and multi-factor authentication. The NIN along with attributes
which could be demographic, OTP, digital certificate, or single/multiple biometrics
(fingerprints and/or iris images) may be used to provide single-factor
authentication. As an alternative, these attributes would be used in combination
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(multi-factor) to achieve the required authentication needs. The NIN, on its own,
may not be used a factor for authentication.
d. The eID authentication process would support multiple types of authentication
depending on the input type (demographic, OTP, digital certificate, biometric, or
multi-factor). All types of eID authentication requests would take the NIN as one
of the input in order to reduce the authentication to a 1:1 match in the CRIDS.
e. The eID authentication process would support the federated authentication model
and would be designed with a view to strengthening the service providers’ existing
authentication systems, rather than replacing the existing one. While the federated
model would not mandate the existence − or use − of the service providers’ own
authentication (if a service provider so wishes, the eID authentication may be used
by itself), they would be encouraged to use the eID authentication in conjunction
with their own local authentication to render the overall system stronger and more
reliable. This could be called the federated model of eID authentication.
f. The eID authentication process would contain security and privacy features such
as “yes/no” response, digitally signed request/response, response code, response
timestamp and self-verifiability of response, encryption and tamper-proofing. For
further details on the security and privacy features of the eID authentication
process, refer to the India experience in Annex 5.
g. The eID authentication process would support buffering of data at multiple end-
points to enable service delivery in case of intermittent non-availability of network
connectivity.
3. Biometric Data Standards and Devices
a. Biometric Device Specifications. The terminal device used in the biometric-based
authentication process would have the capability to capture the fingerprints and
iris images of residents. The government could define the biometric device
specifications1 based on open standards so that the related information captured
with the device would ensure high-quality data and result in greater accuracy.
b. Biometric Data Standards. To meet the huge demand for biometric capture devices
needed in eID authentication, it may be necessary to source the devices from
multiple vendors specializing in biometric authentication. However, this would be
1 Biometric Devices Specifications for Aadhaar Authentication -
http://stqc.gov.in/sites/upload_files/stqc/files/New%20Revision%20_May_%201%20STQC%20UIDAI%20BDCS-03-
08%20UIDAI%20Biometric%20Device%20Specifications%20_Authentication_.pdf
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possible only if there is interoperability among the devices produced and sold by
various vendors for data capture and matching. The designated government body
could define the biometric data standards based on the open standards for
fingerprint images, fingerprint minutiae, iris images and facial photos to achieve
interoperability. The ISO 19794 series of biometric standards for fingerprint, facial
and iris recognition set by the International Standards Organization (ISO) are the
most widely accepted, and best embody previous experiences of the US and
Europe with biometrics.
c. Biometric Specifications. The biometric Software Development Kit (SDK)
Application Programming Interface (API) specifications would provide a single
unified interface across multiple modalities (face, fingerprint, and iris) for SDK
developers of biometric device vendors to expose their functionality to various
modules of the Electronic Identity Services Delivery Platform (EISDP). This would
enable vendor neutrality as the use of standard APIs and open standards would
eliminate proprietary and vendor-specific features. It would also promote
interoperability by using standard interfaces, common data format definitions and
protocols across the components that expose similar functionality. The open API
would also allow best-of-breed algorithms to be used for special purposes. The
API exposes quality check, segmentation, sequencing, extraction and matching
functionalities. The specifications would be published on the government public
portal.
d. “Best Finger Detection” Technology. The EISDP would expose the “best finger
detection” as a stateless web service. This would be called by the service providers’
application to detect a resident’s finger providing the most accurate among
successful matching results. The resident would then use the best finger to ensure
a better success rate in biometric eID authentication. The chances of getting a
match may vary due to differences in quality across all fingers. This variation may
also be present due to the manner in which the resident normally interacts with a
typical fingerprint scanner, and different fingers may inherently have varying
amounts of identifying information depending on the size of the finger and the
commonness of the pattern it carries. Hence, the detection of the best finger for
biometric eID authentication would improve the accuracy of the results.
4. Reliable and Trustworthy Electronic Identity IT Infrastructure with in-House Technical
Support and in-Country Proven Technology. The government could build a reliable and
trustworthy eID infrastructure assisted by fulltime technical support. The technical
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solution would be based on already proven technology provided by local software or
technology vendors. The solution would be scalable, flexible, and standards-based for
expansion to other services, as well as forward-looking to enable cross-border use.
5. Domestic in-House Technical Capacity in Electronic Identity IT Infrastructure and Services.
The government could develop in-country technical capacity that would be self-sufficient
in designing and implementing the eID IT infrastructure and services. This is preferable
to relying on foreign software or technology vendors to provide and guarantee support
for a critical piece of national infrastructure. A reliance on non-local vendors would have
a detrimental impact on the country’s day-to-day functioning going forward. Because of
these considerations, a bespoke software model could be developed. In case the
government decides to use the shrink-wrapped solution from external vendors, then it
could build in-house capabilities to implement and manage the solution.
6. Designing Electronic Identity for Easier Integration into Services of Providers. The
government could design the implementation of the eID services in such a way that it
enables integration with the existing and planned primary service delivery systems of
providers. This will allow functionalities such as eSignature, electronic authentication and
document encryption. The government could implement the following measures to meet
the integration requirements.
a. Employment of Standardized Workflows in the Service Delivery Process. As an
example, standard workflow for eSignature using a common document format
would be employed. For further details, refer to the Estonia eSignature
implementation described in Annex 5.
b. Centrally Issued Unique National Identification Number. A centrally hosted
database of the NIN issued to residents would be implemented. There would be a
reliable and trustworthy eID infrastructure to enable the delivery of identity
services. For further details on the centralized eID database and IT infrastructure,
refer to the India experience described in Annex 5.
c. Central Single Point of Access to Public Services. The eID authentication would be
used as a secure token for the various services where access would be provided
by a central single point of entry: the eCitizen portal.
7. Designing Mobile ID Services to Promote Adoption of Electronic Identity Services. In
Estonia, the adoption of eID improved with the implementation of mobile ID services since
the penetration of mobile phones in the country was more than 100 percent. The
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improvement was brought about by the ease of use of the mobile phone as an
authentication device, as compared to a smart card reader attached to the PC. For further
details on the mobile ID implementation experience in Estonia, refer to Annex
5. Some of the technical design lessons learned from Estonia’s implementation of mobile
ID services are mentioned below.
a. Mobile authentication and mobile signing methods would accept the NIN, and
personal identification number (PIN) and phone number as input parameters.
Using a mobile number as the only input parameter may result in security issues
since it is public information. Therefore, including a PIN and the NIN would
improve security.
b. The technical design of the mobile ID would be based on the implementation of
the Wireless Public Key Infrastructure (wPKI), e.g., a wPKI specification2 in which
the mobile phone operates as a smart card reader with display. The
communication between the personal computer (PC) and the mobile phone would
be through the mobile signing/authentication function and gateway of the Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operator.
c. The mobile gateway would use a standard technology such as Over-The-Air3 (OTA)
to communicate and run the applications on the SIM of the mobile phone without
being physically connected to the card.
d. The signing/authentication function would send the signing/authentication
request (wPKI request4) to the back-end system of the MNO using the Internet
Protocol (IP) network which, in turn, sends the request to the mobile gateway. The
gateway would forward the request to the resident’s mobile phone by Short
Message Service (SMS).
e. The mobile phone would support the necessary technical features in order to use
it for mobile ID functions. For instance, Estonia has published the technical
specifications for the mobile phone to enable mobile ID services. The
2 wPKI Specification - http://www.signature.lt/KK/wPKI-specification.pdf
3 Over-The-Air Technology - http://www.gemalto.com/techno/ota/
4 wPKI Mobile Transactions - http://wpki.eu/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php/wiki:baltic_wpki_standard_draft-0.3.pdf
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specifications include support for the GSM Phase 2+ standard5, the SIM application
toolkit6 with OTA updates, and compliance with GSM standards7.
8. ESignature and Digital Certificate Authentication.
a. The eSignature architecture would be based on the universal open standards for
giving, processing and verifying eSignatures. It may be able to connect to any new
or existing piece of software. The components of the system would include a
stand-alone client program, a web portal and a web service based on Simple
Object Access Protocol (SOAP) enabling easy integration of the functionality of
digital signing, signature verification and authentication with other information
systems.
b. Like Estonia, the government could choose a communication model using
standardized workflows and common document format such as the XML Advanced
Electronic Signatures Standard (XAdES). The XAdES defines a format that
structurally enables storage of signed data, signature and security attributes
associated with the eSignature; therefore, it would accommodate a common
understanding among systems.
c. The Gov could define digital certificates and smart card standards based on open
standards to promote interoperability. For further details on the international
experiences of leveraging open and widely used standards for digital certificates
and smart cards, refer to Annex 5.
d. The government could provide software that may be installed on residents’
Internet-connected device (laptop, desktop, etc.) to enable them to use their ID
card electronically to access public and private eServices, digitally sign documents
and encrypt documents for safe transfer. The software would be collectively
referred to as ID-software. The government could provide residents the
instructions on its public website for installing ID-software on the device. For
further details on the ID-software, refer to the Estonia experience in Annex 5.
e. Some of the commonly provided software as part of the framework could include:
5 GSM 11.11 Digital Cellular Telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Specification of the Subscriber Identity Module –
Mobile Equipment (SIM-ME) interface -
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gts/11/1111/05.03.00_60/gsmts_1111v050300p.pdf
6 SIM Application Toolkit - http://www.gemalto.com/techno/stk/
7 GSM 11.14 Digital Cellular Telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Specification of the SIM Application Toolkit for
Subscriber Identity Module – Mobile Equipment (SIM-ME) interface -
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_g3ts/11/1114/05.04.00_60/gsmts_1114v050400p.pdf
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i. Software libraries for developers who may be interested in integrating the
digital certificate authentication and signing capabilities in their software.
ii. Service such as the online certificate status protocol (OCSP) server for
realtime and long-term validity of certificate. For further details, refer to
the Estonia experience in Annex 5.
9. One-stop Common eGovernment Services Portal. The government could design a
common eGovernment services portal for delivering all eServices from its various
ministries and departments with Single Sign-On (SSO) capabilities using eID
authentication.
Institutional Aspect. Some of the institutional learnings, including the organizational structure
and operating models, taken from the study of international experiences as detailed in Annex 5
are listed below.
Organizational Structure
1. Separate Government Organization as the Overall Regulator and Overseer of eID Services.
For any service agency, establishing both the identity and the service entitlement of the
beneficiary is necessary. Though the individual identity would be unique and independent
of the type of service being sought, entitlement is quite specific to the service being
availed and it has to be established by each service agency separately. Hence, as in the
three countries studied (India, Estonia and Belgium), instead of assigning the roles and
responsibilities of eID services to an existing ministry, a new government organization
could be created as the overall regulator and overseer of the eID services. For further
details, refer to Annex 5.
2. Cross-ministerial Apex Committee as Decision Makers for eID Services and Related Issues.
An apex committee at the highest level of government, headed by the president/prime
minister, could be constituted. Members could be ministers from key ministries such as
finance, law, information and communication, labor and employment, etc., who will have
the function of managing all issues relating to the eID system, including its organization,
plans, policies, programs, schemes, funding and methodology to be adopted for achieving
its objectives. However the apex body should have sufficient technical capacity and
operational control for it to be feasible. The apex committee should also participate with
the software development user groups as well as the international development agencies
to maintain openness of standards while installing best practices around privacy and
protection of the residents’ data.
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3. Scalable PPP-based Organizational Structure to Deliver Highly Secure and Quality eID
Services. The need for scalability requirements to meet the exponential growth in the
demand for eID services could be met by designing a scalable organizational structure
based on the PPP model. In this model, the government could define roles in the
ecosystem that would be outsourced to the private sector. The organization for delivering
the service would be small to begin with, but may be scaled out as the demand for the
service increases.
a. The need for high security in the management of Personal Identity Data (PID) in
the CRIDS may be achieved by limiting access to the data center to only a few
authorized organizations that play the role of ISPA.
b. The mobile ID would be implemented using PPP between the government agency
responsible for eID and the MNOs. The government agency could delegate the
responsibility of supplying mobile ID SIMs to the MNOs. The user registration and
mobile ID activation would be performed by the Registration Authority (RA) which
would take the request for user registration and service activation from the
resident. The role of the RA would be performed by the MNOs working alongside
the public security department of the government. The request for the generation
of a new certificate would be delegated to the Certification Authority (CA) of the
Certificate Service Provider (CSP).
c. Biometrics or digital certificate-based eID services such as eID authentication
would be set on a PPP organizational structure in order to ensure that the services
are scalable and meet the service-level agreement (SLA) as defined by the
government. The government could delegate the role of certification center to the
government agency defined in the ESignature Act (ESA), which would in turn hire
the private service providers to implement and deliver the service on its behalf.
The certification center would be responsible for managing the operations of
services such as lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP), OCSP, and other
certificate-related processes, end-user distribution channel through its parent
retail outlets, development and maintenance of the ID-software and installation
packages, instruction manuals and video instructions published on the
government public portal, and call centers.
d. In order to delivery smart card-based biometrics/digital certificate-enabled eID
services, the government could outsource the functionality of card personalization
to the empanelled and certified private sector vendors. The vendor would be
responsible for both the physical and electronic personalization of the card. The
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vendor would receive the card application from the government agency to
manufacture, print and engrave the personal data on the card, generating the keys
on the chip and embedding the certificates on the card.
e. The ESA would define the roles and responsibilities involved in the processing of
eSignatures. Some of the roles could be assigned to CSPs that would certify
residents identifiable by name and PIN. The CSPs would be legal entities fulfilling
specific legal requirements, while timestamping service providers (TSPs) would
provide the timestamp that is simply a data unit that proves that certain data
existed at a certain moment.
4. Biometric Data Standards Committee. The government could form a national-level
committee to define the biometric data standards applicable to the biometric capture,
extractor and matcher devices, algorithms and software. They would be based on the
existing national and international standards that are widely used in the industry. The
committee would have members from the government, academia and industry experts;
the standards would be established in consultation with the other government
departments and service providers in the private sectors.
5. eID Services, IT Infrastructure and Services Owned and Managed by IT Ministry. The
government could have a ministry/department responsible for IT-related policies and for
delivering IT services to the government departments implementing eGovernance. This
department would be responsible for providing technical support and nationwide-shared
IT infrastructure and services that can be used by the government agency responsible for
eID service delivery.
6. Privacy Commission. A privacy commission could be created reporting directly to the
highest authority (the Parliament or the President’s office) to ensure that all privacy rules
pertaining to identity data and their usage are respected at all times.
Operating Model
1. Fresh Enrollment of Residents for eID Services for High Quality eID Data. The quality of
the personal data in the databases of service providers is lacking and fraught with
problems of fraud and duplicate/ghost beneficiaries. To prevent this from seeping into
the eID database, the personal data − both demographic and biometric − would be
collected and verified using the enrollment process. This would ensure that the data
collected is clean from the start of the program.
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2. Introducer System in Inclusive eID Services. The EISDF system would be inclusive and be
made available to all residents, including those who do not have any form of identification
document. There could be an “introducer system” for residents who do not have any form
of identification, and eID would be their first form of identification. The introducer is a
person who stands as the guarantor for the residents’ personal demographic data to be
fed into the eID system. It is noted that such system could be fraught with issues, and will
need to be tight monitoring by civil society and have a clear grievance feedback loop local
stakeholders.
3. Secure and PPP-based Scalable eID Service Delivery Operating Model. The operating model
for delivering eID services using the EISDP would be scalable and based on the PPP model.
a. The operating model would ensure the security of the CRIDS by having only a
limited number of registered ISPAs to have direct connectivity to the eID services
via the web.
b. Any agency that would like to avail of eID services offered by the EISDP would need
to sign up as an ISCA and enter into an agreement with the owner-government
agency. To do so, the ISCA would need to go through an ISPA.
c. The ISPA could establish secure connectivity to the eID services on the EISDP to
transmit requests on behalf of ISCAs, and then receive response back from
services.
d. The ISPAs could build and maintain their secure connectivity to the EISDP in
compliance with the standards and specifications set by the owner-government
agency.
e. There could be a registration process for engaging the players (ISPA, ISCA, etc.)
that will be delivering eID services to the government and private organizations.
The process would be simple, but at the same time it would include the necessary
checks and balances to ensure that the agencies selected are capable of delivering
the services. There would be a clearly defined step-by-step process for applying
as an ISPA or ISCA, and it could include the list of supporting documents required
of each of them as published on the public portal.
4. Technical Awareness and Adoption. There could be a public-facing portal for building
technical awareness and for providing technical support to the user-agencies in both
public and private sectors. It would publish technical documentations such as standards
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and API specifications on the portal used by software professionals who are interested in
incorporating eID services into their applications.
5. Biometric Device or UID Certification for eID-enabled Applications. There could be a
certification process for biometric devices to ensure their compliance with specifications
defined by the owner-government agency. The responsibility of implementing the
certification process would be delegated to the department in the Ministry of Information
Communications (MIC) that is responsible for delivering quality assurance services in the
area of electronics and IT in the country’s network of laboratories and centers. It could
maintain a list of certified vendors’ biometric devices. The vendors who may wish to have
their biometric device certified will have to follow the certification process defined by the
department. The process would be published on the public portal by the owner-
government agency. Alternatively the devices could use India’s UID certification
standards, as it could reduce cost, and improve overall security and efficiency.
6. PPP-based Scalable and Secure Mobile-ID Service Operating Model.
a. Secure Login. As in Estonia, a typical scenario for mobile ID-enabled eID
authentication used for logging into a secure site, e.g., a bank account of the
resident, could be:
i. The resident clicks the “Log in with mobile ID” option on a supported
website.
ii. The resident is prompted to enter his/her mobile number and PIN.
iii. The website displays a unique verification code.
iv. The phone beeps and displays a screen indicating that a connection is
being made.
v. The phone screen displays the eID authentication service name and
verification code.
vi. If the service name is correct and the verification code corresponds to the
displayed number on the page in the computer, then it is safe to press
“Accept”.
vii. The user is prompted to enter a mobile ID PIN on the phone.
viii. The screen on the phone disappears and the website is automatically
reloaded with a logged in screen.
b. Mobile ID Provisioning. The national mobile operators in the country could issue
the mobile ID through their local stores. The resident could go to the nearest
mobile operator to get a mobile ID SIM. The service provider would forward the
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application to the MNO and inform the resident where to pick the new SIM. The
resident would be required to have his/her identity card with valid certificates for
getting the mobile ID and would have to sign a contract (mobile ID subscription
agreement) to complete the transaction. The government could delegate the
responsibility of issuing the mobile ID to the national mobile operators. The MNO
identifies the user using the identity card and on successful authentication, hands
over the new SIM to the resident. As part of the provisioning, the SIM would be
attached to a unique secure signature creation device (SSCD) for the resident, and
the SSCD can later be used for issuing a qualified certificate. The SSCD certificate
would be declared active for a particular SIM and made available to all the TSPs.
The MNO would provide a unique code to the resident for activation of the
qualified certificate.
c. User Registration/Certificate Activation. The resident would activate the service
on the handset with the new specialized SIM. To activate the mobile ID service or
to apply for certificates, the resident would have to go to the website of the public
security department, the RA. The resident would have to fill an online application
form and enter the ID card into the card reader and follow the instructions. The
purpose of the certificate activation process would be to create and activate a
qualified certificate. The resident would issue a request to activate the qualified
certificate using the mobile phone with the new SIM. The RA would initiate signing
by responding to the resident’s mobile device to sign the personal data. The
resident would verify the data, and then sign it by inputting the device certificate
activation code. The RA would now receive the personal data signed. The RA would
attach additional data, including the device certificate, before forwarding the
request for certification activation to a CA. The CA would create and activate a
qualified certificate and publish it.
d. Usage. A service provider would request service, such as eID authentication, from
a TSP and would use a GSM subscriber number and/or personal identification code
to identify the resident. The TSP would generate the signature request and send it
to the resident’s mobile phone. The resident would sign the request by entering
assigned PIN. The TSP would now receive the signature data. The TSP would check
the validity of the signature data, as well as the validity of the certificate. The
service provider would then receive the eID-related services from the TSP.
e. Termination. It may be possible for the resident to stop using the mobile ID for
several reasons, among them: the resident may not be using the service,
lost/compromised the SSCD, the qualified certificate expired, or the resident may
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have violated the user-CA agreement. In case of certificate revocation, the RA
would inform the CA about it and the CA would immediately revoke the certificate.
At this point, the Certificate Revocation List (CRL) may be updated. In case of SIM
blocking due to loss or SIM damage, the device certificate would be taken out of
the list of valid SSCD available to all TSPs.
f. Mobile ID Fees. The mobile operator may charge the resident fees for the mobile
ID service. The charge would include a one-time subscription fee, as well monthly
fees. If the mobile ID would used outside the country, each mobile ID transaction
would be charged at the cost of sending one text message based on the package
price list.
7. Readily Available ID-software and Devices to Drive Adoption. In order to drive the
adoption of eSignatures within the region, the compatible software and technology would
be made available quickly to the parties looking to incorporate eSignatures into their
applications.
8. Round-the-clock Call Center and Online Services to Prevent eID Fraud. To prevent eID
fraud, the government could set up a call center operating 24/7 year-round and provide
DocStop and CheckDoc services. DocStop would help avoid the risk of fraudulent use of
eID documents, as well the financial consequences. DocStop would enable the resident
to block the identity card and eID profile immediately in case related information is lost,
stolen or compromised. The resident would have to call the toll-free DocStop number to
report the incident. The service is available 24/7 year-round. The CheckDoc would enable
the resident to verify in realtime the validity of the eID documents; it would also identify
the stolen, lost, expired, invalid or never-used eID documents. To use the service, the
resident or the user-organization would have to register by filling in a registration form.
The website may be accessed by using the username and password provided on successful
registration.
Policies
1. Know Your Customer. Service providers in both the public and private sectors such as
those in banking, insurance, capital markets, telecom, LPG, railways, etc., may update
their KYC norms to include eID as the valid KYC.
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2. Biometric Data Standard Policy. The government could define a policy at the country level
to standardize the use of biometric data for purposes of identification and authentication
of residents.
3. ESignature Act. The government could pass a EESA to ensure that the eSignature of the
resident issued by the designated government agency is valid certificate and has legal
binding, making it equal to paper-based handwritten signature. The handwritten and
eSignatures would be made equivalent in both the public and private sector by this Act.
The EESA would also state that public service departments must accept digitally signed
documents. The EESA would ensure that each eSignature uniquely identifies the signatory,
binds the individual to the signed data, and guarantees that the signed data cannot be
tampered with retrospectively without invalidating the signature itself.
4. Rules and Regulations for Certificate Service Providers. One of the core components of
the ESA could be the establishment of rules and regulations with regard to CSPs that would
issue digital certificates to users and manage related security services. The ESA would
mandate stringent financial and procedural requirements to ensure that CSPs are set up
and managed properly to perform their function to the highest possible standard.
5. Rules and Regulations for Timestamp Service Providers. The ESA would also regulate
timestamping by the TSPs. These service providers would adhere to similar laws and
regulations as those applied to CSPs. The timestamp is simply a piece of data that attests
to the occurrence of an event at a specific time. The ESA would ensure that the
timestamped data are not tampered with or amended without invalidating the timestamp
itself.
6. Personal Data Protection Act. The PDPA regulates the use of personal data and databases
by public authorities and private entities. The Act would mandate a data protection
inspection department within the government to oversee that the requirements of the Act
are being met; it would also enforce compliance, if necessary. The strategy for the
protection of the identity card would be to keep to a minimum the private data on the
card. Instead, the data would be kept in highly secure databases at authorized centers. A
person would use the card as the key (authorization method) to accessing his/her
personal information in the database. Requests by third parties (e.g., representatives of
authorities) for private data would be logged, and logs would be made available online to
the individual upon request (via the citizen’s portal).
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7. Identity Documents Act. The government could pass, or update if existing, an Identity
Documents Act (IDA) affecting related documents to establish national guidelines for the
creation of the NIN, and the issuance of an identity card and an eID for the residents of
the country.
a. The IDA would grant equal value to the eID as compared to the current paper-
based identity documents for all legal purposes.
b. The IDA would decide the purpose of the card and the NIN in terms of proof of
citizenship. In India, the unique ID number (UID) is used as the proof of identity
only, and does not confer citizenship. For further details, refer to the India
experience in Annex 5.
c. The IDA would state that the deduplicated and processed residents demographic
and biometric data used for the personalization of the card would also be entered
into the national population register pursuant to the Population Register Act.
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4.0 Current Identity Usage and Service Delivery Issues Faced
in Vietnam
An understanding of the current identity systems and identity-related service delivery issues
faced by the residents and service providers in the public and private sectors in Vietnam are
described below. This understanding was developed based on discussions with various
stakeholders in Vietnam and secondary online desktop research.
4.1 Understanding of Current Identity Systems in Vietnam
People’s Identity Card: Common Proof of Identity Document in Vietnam
Figure 4.1: People’s Identity Card
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) issues the People’s Identity Card (ID card) and an identity
number to all the residents of Vietnam. Service providers use it as the Proof of Identity (PoI)
document to establish the identity of a resident. The ID card is a paper-based card issued to all
residents above the age of 14 by the MPS department at the provincial level. The card bears the
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resident’s name, address, age, height, weight, date of issue, and one fingerprint; it is valid for
ten years. Roughly 98 percent of the Vietnam population owns this card.
Current Identity Creation and Authentication Process during Service Delivery in Vietnam
Figure 4.2: Current Identity Authentication Process for Service Delivery
In Vietnam, as in other countries, both public and private service agencies across the country
typically require PoI before providing services to individual residents. For any agency, establishing
both identity and entitlement of the beneficiary is necessary before offering any service to a
resident, be it opening a bank account, withdrawing or depositing money, getting a tax code,
receiving pension, or for travel. Individual identity may be unique and independent of services
availed, but entitlement is very specific to the service desired; therefore, they have to be
established separately. For instance, the issuance of a health insurance card involves individual
identity (name, address) verification and health insurance entitlement identification.
Identity establishment typically involves two steps: identity creation and identity authentication.
Identity creation is the mechanism of defining an individual’s identity by providing identity
token(s) to the person in some form (physical and/or electronic). This is typically a one-time
activity. Identity authentication is a process of verifying “who an individual claims to be” by
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checking the identity tokens assigned to the individual. This can be manual, electronic or a
combination of both.
The service providers in both the public and private sectors typically follow their own process of
identity creation, in addition to the service entitlement identification. To illustrate, the Vietnam
Social Security (VSS) maintains a separate database of beneficiaries and their service entitlement
identification for each of the welfare programs such as social and health insurance. A separate
identity token for each of the programs are provided to the resident for identity authentication
and entitlement verification.
Each service provider in Vietnam uses the ID card and other valid PoI documents such as a
passport for identity establishment to generate a new service provider-specific identity card. The
same identity card is used to establish service entitlement. The resident presents the service
provider-specific identity card for authentication and entitlement at the time of the service
delivery.
VSS. The VSS is in the process of centralizing its beneficiary databases from different programs,
namely the social and health insurance which are available at present at the local level. Currently,
the identification of the unique citizen across the program databases is a challenge as the IT
systems and the databases are distributed with no common data standards for storing the
citizens’ basic information. Moreover, each database stores a separate identity system for the
identification of the beneficiaries. The identification number on social and health insurance books
are not consistent. There is a need for a unique identification number to be assigned to the
citizens that they can use throughout their life. The VSS is waiting for the GoV to issue the national
identity number (NIN) to citizens so that it may be better able to manage the social and health
insurance programs.
Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs. The Bureau of Employment under the Ministry of
Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) currently has to maintain two separate and disjointed
databases for the supply and demand sides of the labor market due to different data fields used
in the identification of the beneficiaries in the databases. The data for the demand side of the
database is collected primarily from government agencies, government-owned enterprises and
private businesses. The data fields used for the identification of the citizens in this database is
based on the ID card or passport. The supply side of the databases uses the household book for
the identification of the beneficiaries. The beneficiary is given a unique code using the
geographical location codes from the government of the permanent address of the beneficiary,
namely region code, province code, district code, commune code, household number and family
member number. The ministry is currently executing a pilot in two districts for capturing the
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supply side of the database using the ID card as the primary identification document so that it
can be connected to the demand side of the databases. The ministry also has to update the
databases annually to maintain the accuracy of the information – a time-consuming and
resource-intensive process. The ministry would be able to avoid the necessary annual update and
consolidate the databases automatically with the availability of a unique identification system for
citizens. This system could also be used by the private sector and other government agencies
for identification of their employees and the citizens in general. The ministry captures the data
of beneficiaries from age ten and up in the labor market database. The ministry wishes to
recommend that the government lower the minimum age for requiring the national identity
number to ten years old. Currently, the proposal is to commence the identity card issuance at
14 years of age.
Ministry of Education and Training. The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) is designing a
centralized Education Management Information System (EMIS) for all schools in Vietnam to
streamline the management of its operations. The ministry provides free Internet connection to
all schools in the country and is in the process of developing the electronic databases of students
and teachers across the country. The electronic database of the 20 million students in the country
could be ready in three years. The MoET expressed the need for a unique identification of citizens
which would help to accurately identify students and teachers across the schools. Currently, the
ministry experiences difficulty in identifying students who moved from one school to another
over the years. There are similar challenges with the identification of teachers and their training
requirements.
Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health (MoH) is working on a number of government programs
which provides citizens benefits such as health insurance, free HIV medicines, etc., based on their
identification. They have been unsuccessful for the last ten years in trying to build a unique
patient identity system in which each patient would have one identification number for use in
different hospitals and in the delivery of other health care services. This unique patient identity
could be used by the patient throughout his/her life for identification purposes and for
maintaining an Electronic Health Record (EHR). The ministry is keen to leverage the national
identification system and the unique identity number in its system for the verification of patients.
The MoH expressed their concern over the lack of awareness of the benefits of the National
Identity (NID) and Electronic Identity (eID) systems among the citizens. Hence, there is a need for
awareness programs on the benefits of the NID to citizens, and on the use the computer and
other devices in the effective delivery of health care.
State Bank of Vietnam. Officials of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) expressed their concern over
the problem of not being able to verify the identity of a person uniquely in the issuance
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eSignatures. On the other hand, they have already issued eSignatures to 7,000 employees of SBV
and other commercial banks. Primarily, the eSignatures are used for Internet bank payments, and
signing financial results and government reports. Different PoI documents are used for the
verification of the identity of a citizen, namely ID card, passport, driver’s license, etc. Having a
single NID with a unique number could solve the current issues of identity theft and duplication.
Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group and Viettel Group. The two largest
telecommunication providers in Vietnam, the Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group
(VNPT) and the Viettel Group, each have a customer base of about 50 million customers. Both
groups have expressed the need for a unique identification system for the verification of the
identity of the citizens at the time of registration of new customers. Currently, they provide
various online value-added services on the computer and mobile phones such as eBanking,
mBanking, utility bill payments, etc. They are also planning to have a new SIM with eSignatures
for the electronic filing of tax returns, ePayment and mobile banking. They agreed that the
mobile-based ID is feasible from the technical capability perspective; however, there is a need
for legal measures for the enforcement of the issuance and the usage of the new eID.
Vietcom Bank. Like the other institutions that have been mentioned in this chapter, the Vietcom
Bank also faces the challenges of verifying the identity of citizens at the time of registration of a
new customer in their system. This is due to having to use more than one PoI for verification. It
has had cases where the individual has opened two different bank accounts with two different
identities using two different PoI. For this reason, it has also been unable to get an accurate credit
history of citizens from the Credit Information Center (CIC). The bank’s officials have expressed
the need for the NID which would enable them to uniquely identify the citizens at the time of
registration. They could also expect the government to provide the necessary guidelines and
technical support in the integration of their systems into the new eID system, and to ensure that
both the old ID card and new eID are valid during the transition period.
4.2 Key Identity Issues Faced during Service Delivery in Vietnam
The current approach to identity creation and identity authentication mechanism has resulted in
the following issues.
Lack of a Unique Resident Identification
The ID card currently in use is issued to the resident at the local province level with a locally
generated identification number scheme, and there are issues with resident identification number
synchronization between the national and provincial levels. Hence, the same identity number
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could be issued to more than one resident across provinces and it could be difficult to uniquely
identify a resident by using the ID card alone. It is noted that the GoV recognizes the following
issues and is proactively conducting pilots and seeking legislative changes to address them.
High Cost, Inconsistent and Duplicate Service Provider-specific Identity Creation and
Authentication Process
The service providers in both the public and private sectors typically follow their own process in
the customer/beneficiary identity creation. This is in addition to service entitlement identification
at the time of service delivery as per their needs, with limited or no interoperability as most of
the identity tokens are accepted for specific purposes and at specific locations only. The current
identity system can work only in assisted mode since most of the identification tokens provided
by the service agencies are physical tokens based on “what you have”. This results in a higher
setup cost for the authentication mechanism of each service provider. Moreover, this process
gives limited scalability and cause extreme inconvenience to the residents.
The service providers’ identity creation process is different from one another in terms of the
personal information captured, to the extent that verification and validation of that information
results in the creation of multiple identities for the same resident. For instance, the VSS maintains
a separate database of beneficiaries and their service entitlement identification for each of their
welfare programs (social insurance, health insurance, etc.). A separate identity token, such as a
card, is issued for each of the programs. This results in leakages of welfare benefits due to the
creation of a large number of duplicate and fake identities within the same benefit program.
Service agencies are unable to correlate the different benefits given to a resident through various
programs, as they are unable to even verify the correct entitlement. This challenge potentially
lowers the impact of welfare programs.
Paper-based Identity Card Leads to Higher Risk of Identity Thefts
With a paper-based ID card that is issued at creation process, there is a higher risk of identity
theft and misuse of photocopies when submitted as PoI. It is easy to forge physical documents
and difficult to identify fakes and copies. Also, such documents cannot be used to verify that the
person carrying the token is indeed the person it identifies, except when it also contains a photo.
Furthermore, the current ID card is subject to misuse since there is no authentic audit trail and
instead relies on an exhaustive manual audit mechanism.
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5.0 Vision for Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework
(EISDF)
Figure 5.1: Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework (EISDF)
In order to eliminate the issues currently facing service providers with regard to unique
Customer/Beneficiary/Subscriber (CBS) identification and identity authentication, there may be a
need for the development of a more robust and effective national identity system (NID) that
includes the creation on the national level of a unique Electronic Identity (eID) and an eID services
referred to as EISDF (Figure 5.1). The NID is being implemented by GoV. Such a system put in
place will help achieve the vision of eGovernment and foster innovation in public and private
eServices as well as strengthen cybersecurity. The eID would enable the resident to request and
receive services from public and private sector providers anywhere, anytime, and by using any
device. The focus of this chapter is to develop the vision for the EISDF.
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5.1 High-level Description of EISDF
Services Offered. Some of the key services that may be delivered with the implementation of the
EISDF are explained below.
1. Electronic Identity Authentication Service. The EISDF would facilitate the delivery of a
national-level electronic-based service for the unique identification and identity
authentication of residents physically or online. It would be used by service providers in
the public and private sectors for delivering eID-enabled services using eID-enabled
applications to their CBS.
2. Electronic Identity Seeding Service. The EISDF would provide eID seeding service, which
enables the use of eID authentication by mapping the CBS profile to its unique National
Identity Number (NIN) generated at the national level on registration.
3. ESignature Service. The EISDF would put into effect the use of eSignatures by residents
on eDocuments in transactions with the public and private sectors. This would enable
paperless eService workflows and do away with the need for physical signatures.
4. Electronic Know-Your-Customer Service. The EISDF would provide a centralized Electronic
Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) process by which a service provider is able to identity its
CBS electronically with the explicit authorization of the latter. The eKYC, being eID-based,
would furnish an instant, non-repudiable Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address
(PoA), along with date of birth and gender. In addition, it would also yield the resident’s
mobile number and email address to the service provider, which further streamlines the
process of service delivery.
5. Electronic Payment (ePayment) Service. The EISDF would provide a centralized eID-based
ePayment service through the Electronic Identity Service Delivery Platform (EISDP). With
ePayment, government agencies would be able to make fund transfers of public program
benefits such as social pension, health benefits, scholarships, etc., to the intended
beneficiaries. While the emphasis in the report is on Government-to-Citizen payments, if
the electronic payment service is made available to the business and citizen communities,
it could be used for Business-to-Citizen, Citizen-to-Business and Citizen-to-Citizen
payments.
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6. Mobile ID. The EISDF would provide a centralized mobile ID service in collaboration with
mobile network operators to verify the resident’s identification through their mobile
phones. Having the mobile ID as an identification mechanism should also facilitate the
growth of mobile applications and adoption in Vietnam.
EISDF Key Concepts. Some of the key concepts for enabling the seamless delivery of the eID
services are described below.
1. Centralized National-level Identity Service Provider. The envisioned EISDF would be
owned, designed and implemented by a centralized government-owned national-level
identity service provider.
2. Electronic Identity-enabled Applications and Service Delivery. Service delivery applications
that may use eID functions to identify and authenticate the resident would be referred to
as “eID-enabled applications”. The use of eID-enabled applications may be broadly
referred to as “eID-enabled service delivery”.
3. Centralized National-level Identity Creation Process. The EISDF would be based on a
central identity creation system operated by a national government agency which issues
the eID. A centralized process for identity creation ensures uniqueness of the eID. Hence,
the service providers using the EISDF for identity authentication of their CBS do not need
to recreate a separate process for its purposes. This would prevent the generation of
multiple identities for the same resident by multiple service providers.
This mechanism would eliminate the need for duplication of effort in identity creation by
the service providers, and result in a reduction of the overall cost of identification.
The framework could also leverage advancement in technology to enable providers to
deliver a higher quality of service to the residents and empower them to prove their
identity anywhere, anytime, and in multiple modes using the global and irrevocable eID.
4. Identity that is Digital, Online-verifiable and Interoperable. Going digital and online has
always proven to increase access, convenience and transparency to the common man.
Given that Vietnam has good Internet penetration8 with fiber optic cables laid all the way
to the commune level and wireless broadband connectivity at the village level with more
8 Report on Internet Statistics of Vietnam - http://www.thongkeinternet.vn/jsp/trangchu/index.jsp
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than 100 percent mobile penetration9, there is an increasing demand from the CBS for
eServices in both the government and private sector organizations. The eServices would
require a digital and online-verifiable eID for delivery. The EISDF could also leverage
advancement in technologies with the use of the eID which is digital, online-verifiable and
standard-based interoperable for unique identification of residents.
5. Identity Based on NIN, Demographic Attributes, and Biometrics. The EISDF would leverage
the use of the eID as defined by the identity creation process of the new NID system. The
unique eID would be defined in terms of a person’s demographic attributes (name,
gender, age, address, etc.), biometrics (fingerprints, iris images) and the central
government-issued NIN. Demographic data alone may not guarantee uniqueness;
however, they would be linked to the biometric attributes of the individual to create a
unique identity for NIN generation.
6. Global and Irrevocable NIN. The NIN identifies the residents and would give them the
means to clearly establish their identity to public and private agencies across the country.
The NIN would have three key characteristics:
a. Permanence: It remains the same throughout the lifetime of a resident.
b. Uniqueness: One resident has one identity number, and no two residents throughout
the country have the same identity number.
c. Globalness: The same identifier can be used across applications and domains from
different service providers in the country.
7. NIN Uniqueness through Biometric Deduplication. The NIN would be issued by GoV during
the initiation process called enrollment where a resident’s demographic and biometric
information are collected and the uniqueness of the provided data is established through
a process called deduplication. The deduplication process would include running the
demographic and biometric information captured during enrollment through the rigorous
1:1 mapping of the two sets of data to yield 99.99 percent accuracy before assigning a
unique identity number to the resident. Post deduplication, the NIN may be issued and a
letter containing the details sent to the resident.
9 Mobile-cellular subscriptions - http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-
D/Statistics/Documents/statistics/2012/Mobile_cellular_2000-2011.xls
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The digital and online-verifiable eID could reduce the risk of resident identity theft and
remove the issues of photocopied fake documents. It is easy to forge paper-based identity
documents compared to the digital-based identity which is verifiable online.
The eID would be issued using the Personal Identity Data (PID) based on an individual’s
paired demographic and biometric information following the national policy of the
government to ensure interoperability.
8. Standardized Identity Supported by Tokens. The EISDF would support standardized
identity tokens of different types depending on the identity authentication and eSignature
requirements of the service providers or their specific programs. The EISDF would support
three different types of identity tokens: a personal identification number (PIN), or “what
the user knows”; a mobile/One-Time Password (OTP)/digital certification, or “what the
user has”; and fingerprints or iris images, or “who the user is”. Identity tokens are
described in detail in Annex 1. The eID of the resident would be assigned multiple identity
tokens to be used, as appropriate, for authentication and eSignature based on the
business need of the service being rendered.
Common Security and Privacy Considerations. The eID functions, as envisaged, would become
available online across various domains and applications on a daily basis. Any online service may
come under various kinds of attacks, including organized large-scale ones. This means that the
delivery of secure eServices is of utmost importance. The design of the eID would include security
and privacy measures at different levels to ensure high-level protection. They are described
below.
Security Considerations
1. Security of Resident Data Captured during Service Request. The eID system would ensure
the security of the personal identity data (PID block) captured on the front-end devices
and applications through several means.
a. Encryption and Tamper-proofing. The EIDSF would encrypt the data on the capture
device before transmitting it over the network. The encrypted data would not be
stored unless it is for buffered authentication for a short period of time and it
would be deleted after transmission. Biometric and OTP data captured for the
purposes of authentication would not be stored in the database on a permanent
basis. The service would also support Hash-based Message Authentication Code
(HMAC) to ensure that the PID block is not tampered in transit.
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b. Trusted Service Delivery Ecosystem. The EIDSF would provide a mechanism for the
registration and authentication of the terminal device, operator and other
participants to form the trusted service delivery ecosystem. The digitally signed
service delivery application on the terminal device would be used to identify the
trusted devices and applications. The operator would be authenticated in the case
of operator-assisted devices.
c. Digitally Signed Service Request and Response. In addition to the encryption of
data, the registered provider digitally signs the service request and the service
response is signed by the owner-government agency to establish trust and non-
repudiation mechanism between the provider and the agency. The source of the
application programming interface (API) call is heavily authenticated to ensure no
malicious calls are processed. Digital signing of the response by the government
agency would ensure that the integrity of the response is maintained and that the
provider can trust the fact that the response, indeed, came from the right
authority. This feature would allow applications to move eID verification fully
online thereby avoiding paper processing and reducing the overall cost.
d. Response Timestamp. The eID service response to a request would have a
timestamp to allow applications to verify “when” the service was delivered or the
resident authentication was done. Applications would also use it for audit
purposes. This can be useful in filtering the time range of when a particular NIN
was issued during the authentication process.
e. Audit and Certification Mechanism. The EISDF would provide the mechanism for
data and transactions audit and certification. The metadata and the responses
would be stored for audit purposes for over a period of time for a minimum of six
months. There could be standard audit and certification processes for application
devices and overall networks across the ecosystem. Every service request would
generate a unique response code that can be used for audit and troubleshooting
purposes. This code would uniquely distinguish every transaction across the
system, quite similar to the unique authorization code issued for every credit card
transaction.
f. Fraud Analytics. The EISDF would avail of the Fraud Analytics software, a detection
tool suite that identifies suspicious claims at the onset.
g. Anti-Virus Software. Software to prevent malware/virus attacks would be put in
place, along with other network security controls and end-point authentication
schemes.
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2. Security of End-to-end Network. The eID service delivery would use a protected network
for transmission of data using a secure channel such as the secure sockets layer (SSL) and
a secure leased line or similar private lines as a defense against network attacks which
result in denial of service (DoS). The service design would also ensure high availability
and redundancy in case some parts of the network are compromised or unavailable.
Service providers and their partners (agents, application providers, etc.) would put
appropriate network security in place to guarantee their systems are protected from
attacks.
3. Securing Service End-points/CRIDS. If centralized EISDF is exposed over a public network
such as the Internet to partners, it is expected to come under DoS/Distributed DoS (DDoS)
attacks. Since many applications in the country could heavily depend on functions such
as eID authentication, it is strategically important not expose them over any public
network like the Internet, and not create a “single point” of attack that can potentially
affect multiple services. There are means to fully protect the eID from unauthorized
external systems’ direct network attack that could result in DoS and data theft. They are
explained below.
a. Identity Service Provider Agency. The EISDF service would be kept in the secure
zone and exposed through multiple network end-points. The design would
include the creation of authorized organizations like Identity Service Provider
Agencies (ISPAs), and exposing authentication service solely through their secure
private connections using leased lines. This is strategic in ensuring multiple end-
points always exist to provide authentication service in a secure, and always
available, fashion.
b. License Key Usage. The EISDF would support the concept of license key similar to
that issued in software licensing: a pattern of numbers and/or letters provided to
license users. It ensures that only authorized service provider can access the
authentication service. It provides a mechanism to enforce specific feature usage,
expiry, etc. It also allows the service providers to extend the service API to their
partner-agencies and to trust their requests.
4. Standards-based Security Management. The EISDF would implement standards-based
security management; which includes information security management, potential
security controls and control mechanisms, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) process, the
information security management system (ISMS), and implementation and risk
assessments. The eID authentication function would support standards such as the ISO
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27001i for information security management, the ISO 27002ii for potential control and
control mechanisms, the ISO 27003iii for guidance on the use of the PDCA process, the
ISO 27004iv to establish the effectiveness of the ISMS implementation, and the ISO 27005v
for risk assessment, etc.
Privacy Considerations
1. “Yes/No” Response. This feature would be applicable to the authentication function only.
The eID authentication would allow applications to “verify” the identity claimed by the
resident at service request while still protecting their data privacy. The eID authentication
function would only respond with a “yes/no” and no personal identity information is
returned as part of the response. This is one of the key strategic options to ensure resident
data privacy − that there is no mechanism to “get” data of a resident through the
authentication API.
To illustrate, the authentication API involves questions and answers handled in this
manner: “Resident claims his/her name is so-and-so, is this correct?”. While eID
authentication may respond to a “yes/no” answer, it does not provide any scheme to ask
questions such as: “What is the address of the resident whose national identification
number is such-and-such?”
2. Self-Verifiability of Response. The eID authentication and eKYC response would provide a
true electronic version of identity verification and proof for verification. It would allow
decoupling of the response usage from the actual service request which generates the
response. The response would be used long after its generation and would be used
multiple times as required. The current practice of identity verification is done by
collecting “attested” copies of documents. Attesting allows the system to “trust” the fact
that the copy is indeed verified against the original. At a high level, the eID authentication
response would allow the service provider agencies to self-verify the following:
Is this authentication indeed verified by the eLD-issuing government agency?
ESignature would allow this check. This is akin to checking if an authorized officer
has signed.
Is this authentication for a given NIN?
Was this authentication done within the last “n” months? A timestamped response
allows this. It is useful to know if the authentication proof is recent.
What was authenticated? “Usage flags” within “info” allows this check.
Was name, date of birth, etc., verified?
Was biometrics used?
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Was full or partial address verified?
Is the address verified during authentication the same as what is now provided by
the resident? Hash value of demographic data would be used to uniquely identify
secret information.
In the case of the pension system, residents need to annually establish the fact
that they are alive. This is currently done by having residents go to an authorized
officer to sign a declaration. With eID authentication, an agency would authenticate
a resident independently and provide the response to the pension system. The
pension application can answer the question, “Has the person with such-and-such
NIN been biometrically authenticated in the last six months?”, by simply verifying
the extensible markup language (XML) response. Then it is determined whether
that person is alive or not.
The eID authentication response is similar to the paper-based document currently
in use which says, “To whom it may concern,” and which is signed by an authorized
officer on a specified date with the document clearly stating that “the person with
such-and-such NIN has the name and address as given below”.
The eID response would be viewed simply as an electronic version of the paper-
based document and may be trusted and self-verified by a third party application.
3. Asynchronous Service Call via Transaction ID. The eID can be called by the service provider
applications in an asynchronous mode, that is, data transmission is intermittent rather
than in a steady stream. The transaction ID could be used by service providers to assign
a logical business transaction identifier while integrating eID services. This feature would
allow the request/response scheme to be made synchronous or asynchronous without
worrying about how to correlate a request to its particular response. Whenever there is
integration between two independent systems, it is critical that every transaction has a
common “identifier” for correlating the request and response; it could also serve audit
purposes later. For instance, when conducting a payment transaction, a bank would have
to keep track of it across the flow. Service response contains the same transaction code
that was in the request allowing applications to correlate a response with a particular
request.
4. Buffered Service. The eID system supports “Buffered Service” in which the PID of multiple
eID-holders are collected and buffered at the service request device, then transmitted at
a later time. The buffered service process, therefore, varies slightly from that of the
normal case until the service requests are transmitted from the service request device.
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From this point, the model and process are similar to the normal scenario: the buffered
set of service requests are checked, structural validation of data is performed and
forwarded to the service request processing server. Upon receiving the service result for
each request, the service provider application forwards the same to the service request
device that has placed the requests. Although the service request device may transmit
multiple requests at the same time, each request would be treated as a separate
transaction in the server and each request would have its own auth code. It is the
responsibility of the service provider to ensure that the service request devices being used
are capable of managing buffered service (including the capability to store multiple
requests, transmit them at the same time, and receive and store the results of multiple
requests). There would be an upper limit for the time duration that requests can be
buffered. This duration may be determined by specifications defined by the owner-
government agency. Since buffered service is provided only for supporting occasional
connectivity issues on the field, buffering of requests would be done only on service
request devices, and not on the servers of service providers.
Common Identity Service Usages. Service providers could use the eID system provided by the
EISDF mainly for the following three broad usage types:
1. Establishing Know-Your-Customer Credentials
a. KYC for various services. Identity and address verification would be a key
requirement for the service providers to enroll a new CBS or to open a new account
for an individual. Examples are issuance of a new tax code, telephone connection,
bank account or Internet service account for an online business. The service
provider in all such cases would be able to verify applicant identity and address
using eID authentication. This is expected to substantially reduce the cost of the
KYC process to service providers.
b. General Proof of Identity. The PoI is a standard security-related requirement, e.g.,
for entry to the airport, and to qualify for various examinations in hospitals or
schools where a large number of cases of impersonation are reported every year.
Various Internet, social-networking and eCommerce websites could also use eID
authentication to verify customers and subscribers whenever it is required to
establish the true identity of the person doing a transaction.
c. Demographic Data and Address Verification. The demographic data of the CBS in
the databases of service providers could also be verified; this process would help
in the database cleansing and management to weed out duplicate and ghost
identities.
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2. Establishing Presence and Proof of Delivery
a. Beneficiary Identity Verification. Various social sector programs, where beneficiary
identity needs to be verified before delivery of the service, are expected to be the
most common users of the eID authentication service. Examples of its use include
subsidized food and kerosene deliveries to below poverty line beneficiaries, health
service delivery to health insurance beneficiaries, job applications registration by
beneficiaries, etc. Identity verification would ensure that services are delivered to
the right beneficiaries.
b. Attendance Tracking. Another key purpose of eID authentication would be in
establishing the presence of the beneficiary of the programs at the site for
attendance tracking. For example, student and teacher attendance tracking for
education-related activities, and labor attendance tracking for employment-
related programs where outlay is linked to actual number of days the beneficiary
reports for the program.
c. Financial Transactions. Banks would authenticate the customer using the eID and
other bank-related identity information (account number, user ID, along with
password/OTP) before enabling financial transactions such as fund transfers and
fund withdrawals.
3. Unifying Resident-centric Information. The (NIN) would be used as the common identifier
to link related databases. The application for linking these databases would be for:
a. A 360-degree view of the resident across social welfare programs, namely
education loan assistance programs, subsidized health programs for newborn
children and pregnant women, old age pension, etc. Such views could be used to
improve the effectiveness of the government programs and to ensure benefits
reach the targeted individuals.
b. Healthcare and patient records database at the local, regional and national level.
c. Credit bureaus for customer rating information.
d. National employment and skills database, and tracking of individuals through the
lifecycle.
e. Large entities such as banks and insurance companies that need to implement a
single-customer view across services.
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5.2 Electronic Identity Services Detailed Description
The section below describes eID services and their specific features.
5.2.1 eID Authentication Service
Figure 5.2: Functional View of the Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework
The EISDF would provide eID authentication as the highly scalable, secure and available national
online platform for the verification of the eID of a resident. The NIN and eID profile of the resident
would be verifiable online using the demographic and biometric attributes over mobile, landline
and broadband networks.
The eID authentication would be used by holders to prove their identity digitally and online, and
for service providers in both public and private sectors to confirm the residents’ identity claim in
order to supply services and give access to benefits to their CBS. The service providers would be
able to deliver different types of eID authentication to their CBS in both the self-service mode
using mobile, kiosks or Internet-connected devices, and the operator-assisted mode using the
point of sales (POS) terminal at designated locations as shown in Figure 5.2. The supported
scenarios are detailed in Annex 1.
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The eID authentication is based on the prerequisite that residents could be uniquely identified
using the NIN assigned to them. The service could take the NIN along with the eID-holders’ PID
as the input which, in turn, verifies the correctness of the data provided on the basis of a match.
The service would send a “yes/no” response to either confirm the PoI or verify the information
provided by the resident.
Electronic Identity Authentication Service Types. Since the eID is meant to empower residents to
prove their identity anytime, anywhere and in multiple modes, the proposed authentication
service would support multiple types of authentication.
Support for Single-factor and Multi-factor Authentication. The eID system would support single-
factor and multi-factor authentications. The NIN, by itself, would not be a factor for
authentication. All authentication types would require the NIN for every request to reduce
transaction to a 1:1 match. The NIN along with demographic attributes or single/multiple
biometrics would be used to provide single-factor authentication, and these attributes could be
used in combination to provide a multi-factor authentication to achieve the required
authentication needs.
eID Authentication Service Classification Based on Type of Authentication Attributes. The
authentication types would be classified based on the attributes used and could support the
following types that can be used by the service providers depending on their business needs:
Type 1: Demographic authentication would use any single/combination of the
demographic attributes such as name, address, date of birth, gender, mobile number and
email address. It would be used on a periodic basis to check validity of the credentials, or
for cleaning up the service provider database by removing duplicates. Service providers
can also use the demographic authentication for identifying CBS prior to any transaction.
Type 2: OTP authentication would use a single-use password. It would be delivered to a
mobile or email address on request initiated by the resident or an application. It would be
used for authenticating residents for Internet and mobile transactions as well as in cases
where deployment of biometric technology is difficult or not practical. The OTP feature
would enable the authentication to be further strengthened by verifying the possession
of the mobile by the resident. The eID authentication would be supported by biometrics
and/or OTP. While the biometrics provide one factor (who you are), OTP provides an
additional factor (what you have). Service provider applications would use OTP as what-
you-have factor to provide single-factor authentication, or along with biometrics as who-
you-are factor for achieving two-factor authentication. In a nutshell, the OTP
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authentication request would be initiated by the resident using Short Message Service
(SMS)/Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) portals; it can also be initiated by
the service providers’ application on behalf of the resident using OTP API. Notice that OTP
authentication is always delivered to the resident’s mobile or email, and the application
is expected to capture that during authentication so that OTP would be validated along
with authentication.
Type 3: Digital certificate or biometrics authentication would use eSignature issued to the
eID-holder by the designated authority in Vietnam. The service provider would issue a
smart card with digital certificate/biometrics, or use the mobile ID to authenticate the
resident. It could be used for authenticating residents for Internet and mobile transactions
and in cases where deployment of biometric technology is difficult or not practical and
the business scenario requires higher security assurance level.
Type 4: Biometric authentication would use fingerprints and/or iris images. It would
require the resident to be present to provide fingerprint/iris image capture on a device.
Biometric authentication would be required in scenarios such as KYC, financial
transactions, and attendance tracking. The biometric matching feature supports one or
more fingerprint matching using either fingerprint minutiae resolution (FMR) or
fingerprint image resolution (FIR), and iris matching using iris image resolution (IIR).
Type 5: Multi-factor authentication would use fingerprints and/or iris images, and/or
digital certificate/biometrics, and/or mobile/OTP. It could be required in cases where
there is a need for greater assurance.
Electronic Identity Authentication Type Based on Assurance Needs. The service provider would
select the authentication type such as single-factor or multi-factor depending on the level of
assurance required by them of their CBS. The selection criteria would depend on the risk, impact,
implementation cost and volume of authentications. These are described in detail in Annex 1.
Authentication Assurance Increases with Biometric Attributes. Demographic authentication (Type
1) is based on demographic attributes and does not guarantee “proof of presence”; hence, it is
associated with a lower level of assurance when compared to authentication based on biometric
attributes, digital certificate and OTP. The OTP authentication (Type 2) or digital certification
authentication (Type 3) is based on the OTP attribute or the digital certificate, respectively, and
the PIN which guarantees “proof of presence” of the mobile/email registered by the resident or
the availability of the digital certificate and the PIN. This process is associated with a higher level
of assurance when compared to demographic authentication type. However, since the
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mobile/email registered by the resident or the certificate and the PIN on the smart card or the
mobile phone can be shared with family members or friends, it does not guarantee “proof of
presence” and is, therefore, associated with a lower level of assurance when compared to
authentication based on biometric attributes. Biometric authentication indicates presence of that
individual; therefore, it provides the highest level of assurance. The assurance potentially
increases as different biometric modalities such as fingerprints and iris images are introduced
into the process.
Supports Federated Authentication Model. Most current authentication systems of service
providers in Vietnam may be described as “local” (i.e., created, managed and/or valid for a few
services, situations or entities) and “revocable” (wherein an existing identity factor would be
revoked and reissued as a result of expiry, compromise or other valid reasons). Such revocable,
local authentication systems come with a set of strengths and limitations. The EISDF, on the other
hand, may be described as “global” (because of it is created and managed by a single national
entity and it is applicable across situations, service providers and services) and “non-revocable”
(because the eID factors such as fingerprints and iris images cannot usually be revoked or
replaced). Global, non-revocable/permanent authentication systems come with their own set of
strengths and limitations.
In the federated authentication model, the global/irrevocable eID authentication co-exists with
and strengthens the local/revocable authentication. It is expected that such a federated approach
would result in authentication systems that are stronger and more reliable than those that are
based only on either the global/irrevocable model or the local/revocable model.
Hence, the EISDF could be designed with a view to strengthening the service providers’ existing
authentication systems, rather than replacing them. While the federated model would not
mandate the existence or use of a service provider’s own authentication (if a service provider so
wishes, it could use only the EISDF by itself), it may be encouraged to use the EISDF in conjunction
with its own local system to render the overall system stronger and more reliable.
The proposed authentication service in the case of multi-factor authentication could support the
federated authentication model in which the service provider can use both factors from the
proposed eID system, or one factor from the proposed eID system plus a second factor from
another entity including that of the service provider itself. For example, a bank could choose a
combination of biometrics and OTP as authentication factors from the proposed eID system, while
another bank could opt for biometric authentication from the proposed system in conjunction
with an ATM card/OTP issued by the bank itself.
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5.2.2 Electronic Know-Your-Customer Service
A fundamental building block of service delivery is the eKYC process; which establishes a
resident’s identity along with the address and other basic information such as date of birth and
gender. Typically, this KYC information is combined with other information to determine
eligibility – be it for scholarship, loan, social security pension, mobile connection, etc.
The EISDF would provide a centralized eKYC service as part of the EISDP; through which the KYC
process can be performed electronically with explicit authorization by the resident. The eID-
based eKYC service would provide an instant, electronic, non-repudiable PoI and PoA along with
date of birth and gender. In addition, it would provide the resident’s mobile number and email
address which further helps streamline the process.
The service provider could use the eKYC function primarily for performing the KYC process during
the registration of a new customer or beneficiary, or for linking the resident profile stored its
database with the NIN/eID database. The service would be accessible only to authorized service
providers using the secure network of the ISPA. The EISDF could provide a mechanism for
registering service providers to use the eKYC function.
The eKYC process could be performed at an agent’s location using biometric authentication as
well as remotely using an OTP on a website or mobile connection. As part of the eKYC process,
the residents could authorize the owner-government agency − through eID authentication using
biometrics/digital certificate/OTP − to provide their demographic data, along with their
photograph, digitally signed and encrypted to service providers.
The owner-government agency could publish the eKYC API specifications on their public portal.
The authorized service provider could invoke the eKYC function using the eKYC front-end
application. The application could capture the NIN along with the biometric/digital
certificate/OTP of the resident to form the eKYC XML by encapsulating the PID block, encrypting
the XML, affixing the eSignature and sending it to the eKYC system using the secured private
network of the ISPA. The eKYC system would authenticate the resident. If the authentication is
successful, it would respond back with a digitally signed and encrypted demographic data and
photograph in XML format. The demographic data and photograph, in response, are encrypted
with the public key of the service provider.
Some of the key features of the service could be:
1. Paperless. The service would be fully electronic and document management may be
eliminated.
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2. Consent-based. The KYC data would only be provided upon authorization by the resident
through eID authentication, thus protecting resident privacy.
3. Eliminates Document Forgery. Elimination of photocopies of various documents that are
currently stored in the premises of various service providers reduces the risk of identity
fraud and protects resident identity. In addition, since the eKYC data is provided directly
by the owner-government agency, there is no risk of forged documents.
4. Non-repudiable. The use of resident authentication for authorization, the affixing of a
eSignature by the service provider originating the eKYC request, and the affixing of a
eSignature by the owner-government agency when providing the eKYC data would make
the entire transaction non-repudiable by all parties involved.
5. Low-cost. Elimination of paper verification, movement and storage could reduce the cost
of the KYC process to a fraction of what it is today.
6. Instantaneous. The service could be fully automated, and KYC data would be furnished in
realtime, without any manual intervention.
7. Machine Readable. Digitally signed electronic KYC data provided by the owner-
government agency would be machine readable, making it possible for the service
provider to directly store it as customer record in its database for purposes of service,
audit, etc., without human intervention, thus making the process low-cost and error-free.
8. Secure and Compliant with IT Policy. Both end-points of the data transfer are made secure
through the use of encryption and eSignature following the national IT security policy,
thus making the eKYC document legally equivalent to a paper-based document. In
addition, the use of encryption and eSignature would ensure that no unauthorized parties
in the middle can tamper or steal the data.
5.2.3 Electronic Identity Seeding Service
The EISDF would provide eID seeding service which is a process by which the NIN of a resident is
included in the database of service providers to enable eID authentication. The process allows
the service provider to map the CBS profile to the NIN. The objective is not to replace the unique
identifier currently employed by service providers, but to seamlessly enable eID authentication
using the NIN without impacting any other interface that the service providers maintain for their
customers.
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This could help to weed out duplicates and fake identities in the database of service providers
and reduce the leakages of welfare benefits. This could also enable the service providers to
correlate different benefits of various programs using the unique NID-mapped profiles of the
CBS. The practice could result in proper delivery of entitlements and a greater impact of welfare
programs. The repeated need for KYC checks during service delivery would be avoided by seeding
NIN in the databases of service providers.
Service providers would be responsible for seeding their databases with the NIN/eID information.
The EISDF would provide them the necessary tools, expertise, best practices, and consulting
advisory on request for the implementation of the seeding process. Some of the tools which
would be provided include seeding utilities and a centralized National eID Seeding Platform
(NESP); they are detailed in Annex 1. The eID seeding process would be a combination of several
sub-processes, and no one solution may apply to all cases. Therefore, it is essential that every
seeding process is thoroughly analyzed and planned before proceeding with the actual seeding.
The eID seeding process would necessarily be preceded by data digitization and centralization in
the service provider database. The EISDF would support top-down and organic methods of
seeding. In the case of the top-down method, the service provider would use the already available
database of the residents to compare with the profile of the residents in the service delivery
database; it would not contact the residents for the seeding process. However, in the case of the
organic method, the service provider would contact the resident, or vice-versa, for updating of
the NIN in its database. After the completion of top-down seeding and organic seeding where no
direct update of the database is enabled, the next step is to conduct a demographic
authentication of the data in the service delivery database. This is to ensure that the seeding
process has been done correctly.
5.2.4 Electronic Payment Service
In order to promote transparency, accountability, efficiency and correct targeting in the benefits
delivery of government programs such as social pension, health care, scholarships, etc., the EISDF
could provide a payment mechanism called National eID-based Electronic Payment Service (NEPS).
The NEPS would leverage eID authentication and the eID-Enabled Bank Account (eBA) for routing
the money to any resident on the basis of an eID. The NEPS would provide a centralized national
eID Payment Bridge (ePB) which would maintain the repository of the NIN/eID and the
corresponding eBA mapping for all the eID-holders in Vietnam. The residents could provide their
primary bank account details for receiving the government benefits at the time of NID enrollment
for the eBA. In case a resident has not provided bank account information at the time of
enrollment, an instant account could be created on the basis of the NIN/eID and serve as the eBA
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for the resident with a debit freeze. Money transferred would be credited to the instant account
that could be activated during the first withdrawal on the basis of eKYC.
The eID owner-government agency, along with other relevant government and private
stakeholders, could appoint a government agency to be responsible for implementing and
managing the NEPS.
Government departments would have to register with the NEPS as users of its service in the
disbursal of government benefits payment through registered sponsor banks. Sponsor banks"
are banks (both commercial and government owned) in Vietnam who may provide their service
to the government departments in the disbursal of government benefits to the residents of the
Vietnam. The bank would have to register with NEPS as the sponsor bank in order to provide their
services to the government departments. Both the public and private sector banks could register
with the NEPS as a sponsor banking institution to cater to user-agencies registered with the NEPS.
A user-agency could submit an ePB file with the NIN/eID of a beneficiary, the user-agency
identifier, the welfare scheme reference number, and the amount to be paid to the beneficiary’s
bank in a pre-defined format to the sponsor bank. ePB file is pre-defined formatted file that is
generated by the government agency which captures the payment details for all the beneficiaries
in the given welfare schemes. This file is sent to the sponsor bank IT system electronically. The
sponsor bank validates the data and attaches the Bank identification number (BIN) in the ePB file
and submits it to the NEPS system.
The sponsor bank could add its NEPS-issued Bank Identification Number (BIN) to the ePB file and
upload it onto the NEPS server. The NEPS processes the uploaded file, prepares the beneficiary
bank file and generates a settlement file. The destination bank would then download the incoming
file for credit processing after the settlement file has been processed. Using the credit file, the
destination bank could use their Core Banking System (CBS) to credit the funds to the bank
account of the beneficiary.
The beneficiary bank would provide the mobile-based or web-based application used by the
beneficiaries to withdraw funds, check their account balance, and allow for the initiation of
electronic payments. The issue of how the propose application allows for fund withdrawal could
also be examine in a pilot phase. The application would authenticate a beneficiary by using the
eID before enabling the beneficiary to access the account for any transaction. For the resident
who does not have access to a mobile-based or web-based application, he/she may walk to a
bank branch to perform the transaction. The resident also may use the micro-ATM with the
Banking Correspondent (BC) nearby to perform the same transaction to avoid travel time and
effort involved in having to go to a bank branch that is inconveniently located.
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This could promote the use of the formal banking system and electronic payment for financial
transactions by residents of Vietnam. It could also enable a faster channel for receiving all welfare
payments without middlemen, and promote ease of accessing bank accounts at anytime and
anywhere.
For government departments, the use of eID as the primary key could eliminate ghost and fake
beneficiaries and lead to better targeting. It could also reduce the time and cost of payment
processing and provide electronic audit trail and end-to-end visibility of all payments to improve
the transparency and accountability within departments.
For banks, use of the eID system could help in having a unique identification of their customers,
encourage electronic payments and, thus, reduce cash management costs. It would enhance the
reach to customers in remote areas using the BC and micro-ATM model, and enable greater
customer acquisitions.
It would be worth noting several considerations with the above proposed concept:
It assumes that one person has only one bank account;
The person has to go to the ID authority in case there is a change in bank account
number;
If a bank is not involved in the sending side, then the ID authority has to start dealing
with funds; and
If a person’s Id number is not tagged with an account number.
While this approach might work in the context of Vietnam, there are other alternatives that could
be considered. For example, the agency responsible for the benefit payments can simply maintain
the ID and the bank account number. If there is a concern on ownership of bank account number,
the agency can validate the name, etc. with the ID agency and also with the bank. This way a
recipient deals with the agency has a direct on-going relationship.
5.2.5 ESignature Service
The EISDF could provide a centralized eSignature service as part of the EISDP for the resident to
be able to digitally sign eDocuments, thereby enabling an end-to-end eService by providers in
Vietnam. The service would provide a universal system for giving, processing and verifying
eSignatures. It can be connected to any new or existing service delivery application using the
common standardized workflows in the form of the common document format applicable to each
service independent of the service provider. The service would use a digital certificate issued to
the resident by the competent government agency of the Vietnam. The digital certificate would
be issued to the resident at the time of enrollment in the eID system, or the resident would
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request for the digital certificate separately after the issuance of the eID. The issuance of the
digital certificate would require the availability of the NIN.
The EISDF could provide software for use by residents in signing the eDocuments. The software
would include base and intermediate libraries, client utility, web services and end-user
applications. The client utility can be installed on the residents’ Internet-connected
desktop/laptop/smart phone and used to sign eDocuments with the eID card or the mobile ID,
check the validity of eSignatures, and open and save documents inside the signature container.
The client utility can be made available to anybody to download for free from the EISDF public
portal. The portal could also provide the instructions for the installation of the software by the
residents on their device. The working of the client utility using the desktop or Internet browser
is detailed in Annex 1.
5.2.6 Mobile ID Service
The EISDF would provide mobile ID service for digital signing of eDocuments and for
authentication of eID-holders. The mobile ID allows residents to use their mobile phone as a form
of secure eID for authentication and eSignature. Like the ID card, it could be used in accessing
secure eServices and digitally signing documents, but with the advantage of not requiring a card
reader. The eSignatures and its associated digital certificate could be issued to residents who
needs such a service, as massive implementation for all residents is likely not feasible from a
process and management perspective.
Qualified eSignatures are advanced eSignatures that are based on a qualified certificate and which
are created by a Secure-Signature-Creation Device (SSCD). Usually, the latter implies the use of
a specific smart card. As an off-the-shelf personal computer (PC) or notebook would not contain
a reader for the simple use of a smart card − the procedure required before the card can actually
be used − it can be quite time-consuming and costly to have to install one. In the case of mobile
ID, there is no need for installation of any card reader and no complicated installations are
required for its use. It can be used anywhere in the world where there is mobile coverage.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has ranked Vietnam at the eighth position in
the world in terms of mobile subscription density. Therefore, the mobile ID could be a good
option for faster adoption of the use of eID. As smart phone technology becomes more
widespread, having the mobile ID option would become increasingly handy, allowing further
adoption of eID for use in mobile applications. This could also help the top mobile network
operators (MNOs) in Vietnam to increase their revenue per subscriber without adding new virtual
subscribers.
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The system would be based on a specialized mobile ID SIM, which the resident should request
from the mobile phone operator. The two certificates along with their private keys could be stored
on the mobile SIM with a small application for authentication and signing.
The government could delegate the responsibility of issuing the mobile ID to the national mobile
operators, namely Viettel, Mobiphone, Vinaphone, etc., through their local stores. Residents
would go to their nearest mobile operator with their ID card with valid certificates for issuance of
the mobile ID. The resident simply signs a contract (mobile ID subscription agreement) with the
mobile operator to get the mobile ID, and activates the service on the handset with the new
specialized SIM. To activate the mobile ID service or to apply for the certificates, the resident
would go to the website of the EISDF to submit an application online.
The mobile operator could charge the resident for the mobile ID service. The charges would
include a one-time subscription fee and monthly fees. If the mobile ID is used outside of Vietnam,
each mobile ID transaction could be charged at the cost of sending one text message as specified
on the package price list.
The mobile ID could be used by the residents for logging in to secure sites; for instance, a bank
account:
1. The resident would click the “Log in with mobile ID” option on a supported website.
2. The resident would be prompted to enter his/her mobile number and personal
identification code.
3. The website would display a unique verification code online.
4. The phone would beep and display a screen indicating that a connection is being made.
5. The phone screen would display the authentication service name and verification code.
6. If the service name is correct and the verification code corresponds to the displayed
number on the page on the computer screen, then it would be safe to press “Accept”.
7. The user would be prompted to enter a mobile ID PIN on the phone
8. The screen on the phone would disappear and the website is automatically reloaded with
a logged in screen.
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6.0 Implementation Strategy Recommendations
The implementation strategy for the vision of the Electronic Identity Service Delivery Framework
(EISDF) could include the high-level technical architecture options for the development of state-
of-the-art, highly scalable and secure Electronic Identity (eID) service delivery IT infrastructure
and platform. This will support an institutional and legal framework including an organizational
model, an operating model and the identification of national policies needed for the governance
and regulation of such a framework. It could also include the communication strategy to develop
awareness and provide tools to key stakeholders to promote the adoption of the framework in
Vietnam. The section below describes some of the implementation strategy recommendations
related to the eID framework, technical options, communication strategy, institutional and policy
framework for the EISDF. It is to be noted that the proposed implementation strategy
recommendations will depend heavily on the foundation set by the National ID program.
6.1 Technical Recommendations
1. Electronic Identity Service Delivery Platform (EISDP). The shared centralized IT
infrastructure and common services platform could be designed and implemented using
common standard mechanisms and open standards-based technologies for facilitating
elD-related processes performed by service providers in the government and private
sector organizations. Service providers could delegate the common elD-related processes
such as unique identification and identity authentication of their
customers/beneficiaries/subscribers (CBS) online to the EISDP, instead of recreating their
own mechanism for identification and authentication. This could remove the duplicate
efforts of identity creation and in turn could reduce the overall cost of the service delivery
process. This could also enable standardized and interoperable identity and identity
authentication process for the residents across all service providers in Vietnam.
2. Key Technical Components of EISDP.
a. Public Portal. The EISDP could provide a common public portal for sharing public
information related to identity services for the residents, technical content,
development and testing environment for software developers to help them
develop eID-enabled software applications, and service management and
monitoring applications for various stakeholders accessible over the Internet and
intranet. The portal could provide user registration and authentication capabilities
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for accessing the protected content on the portal. For further description and
technical details about the public portal, refer to Annex 4.
b. Electronic Identity Services and Common Applications. Some of the elD functions
and common applications required by service providers in the unique
identification and identity authentication of residents could be hosted on the
EISDP, rather than repeatedly hosted by service providers. The common eID
functions and applications that could be hosted on the EISDP are:
i. The eID system and eID authentication, electronic Know-Your-Customer
(eKYC) application, eID seeding, ePayment, eSignature and mobile ID
services.
ii. Common applications: Management Information System (MIS), Decision
Support System (DSS), Fraud Analytics, registration and management
applications of Identity Service Provider Agencies (ISPAs) and Identity
Service Consumer Agencies (ISCAs), and application and IT infrastructure
management systems.
iii. The Centralized Resident Identity Data Store (CRIDS)/EISDP could host an
updated version of the centralized and highly secure database of the eID
(NIN + demographic and biometric data) of the residents.
c. IT Infrastructure (hardware and software). The EISDP could support the IT
infrastructure recommendations as described below. For the detailed description,
refer to Annex 5.
i. The eID services could generally be exposed as stateless web services.
ii. Both the eID services and common applications could be hosted on two
separate scalable, highly available virtualized web farm with clustered
virtual web servers within the centralized data center.
iii. The IT infrastructure could support server virtualization and capabilities
for the management of virtualized and physical IT infrastructure
environment.
iv. The Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam (EIDAV) data centers would not
have direct access to the public network. It would only be accessed by the
registered ISPA using dual redundant private leased line connectivity
between the ISPA and EIDAV’s data centers.
v. Adequate security measures could be designed to prevent any malicious
access outside of the private network by hosting web farms in a secure
zone of the network infrastructure protected by firewall, and the separate
isolated network with the redundant switches.
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vi. The data could be stored on the servers and storage devices in the data
zone that is separated from the secure zone using the firewall. The data
storage system could be designed to be highly available and scalable.
vii. The disaster recovery center could have the same configuration and
capabilities as that of the production data center, and operate in the active-
active mode.
viii. The portal and development environment servers could be accessible over
the Internet and could be completely isolated from the servers and the
network of the secure and data zones in the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ).
The servers for the public portal and development environments could be
hosted on a different segment of the network completely separated from
the servers in the secure and the data zones.
ix. The residents’ eID data in the CRIDS could be populated and updated on a
regular basis using a centralized national-level identity creation process.
Instead of recreating the identity creation process, the CRIDS could be
populated by reusing the resident database created by GoV for issuing the
national identity system (NID) card and the national identity number (NIN)
to the residents of Vietnam.
x. Given that the NID card and the NIN would be issued at the national level,
there could be a single process for identity creation and verification of the
identity; hence, the problem of multiple identities for the same resident
could be solved. The NID card could be used as the centrally issued national
identity token to identify the residents uniquely and the NIN could be used
as the unique identifier for the eID of the resident in the envisioned EISDF.
xi. There could be a periodic transfer of the new residents’ data from the NID
system to EIDAV as and when new residents are enrolled, until all the
residents have been issued the NIN and NID card. A secure operational
model for transferring updates, such as address change, to the resident
data stored in the CRIDS and the NID resident database on an ongoing
basis could be designed.
d. Physical Infrastructure. The EISDF could include the implementation of the physical
infrastructure such as the data centers at various locations based on the topology
and implementation requirements for the EISDF. The EISDP’s physical
infrastructure that could be part of the overall physical infrastructure of the EISDF.
The figure below describes the possible topology of the physical infrastructure to
be established for the implementation of the overall EISDF.
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Figure 6.6 - EISDF Physical Infrastructure Topology
EISDP physical infrastructure could include the following components and for
further details on each of the component, refer to Annex 4.
i. EIDAV Data Center. The EISDP could be hosted at the national-level
centralized data center, namely the EIDAV data center. Since all the EISDF
eID services could be hosted at this data center and the eID services could
be used by the mission-critical applications of the government and the
private sector organizations, this data center could be designated as a
national critical infrastructure.
ii. EIDAV Disaster Recovery Center. The disaster recovery center could be built
in a different geographical location, such as a different city in a different
seismic zone from EIDAV data center. The disaster recovery center could
provide the failover support for eID services, applications and IT
infrastructure of EIDAV data center. It could work in the active-active mode
and could host the eID services and applications to provide load balancing
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and fault tolerance solution to EIDAV center; it could also fall back to the
EIDAV center in case of any failures.
iii. NID Data Center. The NID data center could host the national identity
information database, and the latter could be used to populate the citizen
database in the EIDAV data center for identity services delivery.
e. Safety and Security Systems. EISDP could provide the common security functions
and be hosted on the platform. Some of these functions could include end-to-end
security of the network using the standard network security practices at multiple
levels such as the usage of encrypted channels, IP filtering, authentication of
systems and devices, creation of security zones, network protection through
firewalls and the Network Intrusion Protection System (NIPS), auditing, etc. The
physical security infrastructure could have a multiple level of security system for
entry of authorized personnel, biometric-based access, etc.
f. Operations Management. The operations monitoring and management system
could include technical, institutional and policy-level solutions across the physical
and technology infrastructure, identity services and applications, and the
information delivery interfaces of the EISDP.
3. ISPA Data Center. The ISPAs could be government or private agencies that could establish
a secure private network between their data center and the EIDAV data center compliant
with EISDF standards and specifications. The ISPAs offer their EISDF-compliant network
connectivity as a service through their data center to ISCAs and transmit the latter’s
identity service requests to the EISDP. Some of the technical recommendations for the
ISPA data center are described below and for further details, refer to Annex 4.
a. Only the ISPA data center may send identity service requests to the EIDAV data
center. The ISPA data center could be the critical infrastructure in the delivery of
the eID services; hence, the design of the data center could include a disaster
recovery solution with a remote data backup support.
b. The EISDF could publish on their public portal the process for any government or
private agency to register as an ISPA. The portal could also publish the detailed
technical guidelines for setting up and operating an ISPA data center.
c. ISPA applications and their respective databases could be hosted on the highly
scalable and fault-tolerant virtualized servers. The data center could also include
the required hardware and software for security, data backup, monitoring and
management of the data center.
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4. ISCA Data Center. The ISCAs could host their service delivery applications in the ISCA data
center and integrate them with the eID services for unique identification and identity
authentication of their CBS. The ISCA data center could connect with the Point of Sales
(PoS) terminals and with the designated ISPA data center. Some of the technical
recommendations for the ISCA data center are described below and for further details,
refer to Annex 4.
a. The ISCA could host their web-based service delivery applications in their data
center, and client-based applications on their PoS terminal; which could send their
eID service request to the ISCA data center that forwards it to the ISPA data center
via a secure network.
b. The ISCA applications and their respective databases could be hosted on the highly
scalable and fault-tolerant virtualized servers. The data center could also include
the required hardware and software for security, data backup, monitoring and
management of the data center.
c. The EISDF could publish the ISCA registration process and the detailed technical
guidelines for setting up the ISCA data center on EIDAV’s public portal.
d. The ISCA would have to update their service delivery applications and PoS
applications to integrate with the EISDF eID service Application Programming
Interface (API) calls following the technical guidelines provided by the EISDF in
order to ensure a secure and fail-proof delivery of services.
e. The PoS applications could be centralized web-based or rich client-based
applications connected to EIDAV-compliant biometric devices such as fingerprint
capture, iris scan, and photo camera devices used to collect the biometric data of
the resident.
5. Electronic Identity Authentication Services. Some of the technical recommendations for
the implementation of the eID authentication services are listed below, and for further
details, refer to Annex 4.
a. The eID authentication service could provide several ways in which residents can
authenticate themselves using the system and could support “demographic
authentication” and/or “biometric authentication” and/or digital certificate/OTP.
b. The eID authentication service could be exposed as stateless web service using
the open data format in extensible markup language (XML), widely used protocol
such as hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) and open standards-based
technologies. These could enable easy adoption and deployment of eID
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authentication services. For further details on the open standards
recommendation, refer to Annex 4.
c. To support strong end-to-end security, only registered ISPAs and ISCAs could be
allowed to use the service using the unique registration code and license keys to
enable non-repudiation and message integrity. To avoid request tampering and
man-in-the-middle attacks, encryption of data could happen at the time of
resident data collection on the capture device, and no data have to be stored in
the devices or log files.
d. The EISDP, ISCA and ISPA could maintain audit records for all the authentication
request metadata along with the response to enable issue resolution, audits and
business intelligence.
e. The servers of the EISDP, ISCAs and ISPAs could support buffering of
authentication requests and responses to support occasional lack of network
connectivity among ISCA, ISPA and EISDP data centers.
f. The eID authentication service could take the NIN along with the eID-holder’s
personal identity data (PID) as the input which, in turn, submits the data to the
CRIDS for matching, following which the CRIDS verifies the correctness of the data
provided on the basis of a 1:1 match with the eID-holder’s identity information
available with it. The service would respond with a “yes/no” response to either
confirm the Proof of Identiy (PoI) or verify the information provided by the resident.
g. In all forms of eID authentication service types, the NIN could be submitted along
with the single/multiple authentication factors so that authentication is reduced
to a 1:1 match.
h. The implementation of demographic authentication could include the matching of
the basic demographic attributes of the resident, such as name, address, gender,
etc., captured as part of the service request input data with the PID data stored in
the CRIDS. The demographic data fields and the matching design are further
described in Annex 4.
i. The biometric authentication service type could allow service provider applications
to verify if the resident is “who he/she claims to be”. Several applications may
require physical, in-person verification to ensure only the right resident is being
served and right beneficiaries are being authenticated for service delivery. The
implementation of biometric authentication service could include fingerprint
and/or iris matching. The biometric data captured by the input device should
comply with open standards to promote interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in
situation. For further details, refer to Annex 4.
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j. The One-Time Password (OTP) authentication service could enable the resident to
initiate the OTP authentication request by using Short Message Service
(SMS)/Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) portals or it can be
initiated by the service provider application on behalf of the resident using OTP
API. The OTP authentication could always be delivered on the resident’s
mobile/email, and the application could capture that during authentication so that
the OTP can also be validated along with authentication.
k. The digital certificate/biometrics authentication service could enable the resident
to insert their NID card into the card reader attached to the Internet-connected
desktop for authenticating on the service provider application. The service
provider application would read the digital certificate/biometrics on the card and
initiate a call to the web service for authentication using the digital
certificate/biometrics exposed as the API from the eID authentication service.
l. The digital certificate/biometrics authentication could also be initiated using the
mobile ID. The resident would be able to select the mobile ID option for
authentication on the service providers’ website. The resident could enter his/her
mobile number and NIN on the website. The application, in turn, calls the eID
authentication service API for mobile ID which could respond by providing the
unique code on the website. It could also connect with the mobile phone and
invoke the eID authentication application on the mobile phone and display the
same unique code.
m. The authentication service design could be extensible and support different
tokens such as the mobile phone, Near Field Communication (NFC) token, smart
card, etc., today and in the future. This could be useful in adding second factor
(“what resident has”) for a self-service transaction from the resident.
n. The authentication response could be used as the digital PoI and proof of address
(PoA) at a later point in time by adding the meta-information of the PID details in
the authentication request to the authentication response.
6. Electronic Know-your-customer Service. Some of the technical recommendations for the
implementation of the eKYC service are listed below:
a. The eKYC service could enable the KYC process to be performed electronically with
explicit authorization by resident. The eID-based eKYC service could provide an
instant, electronic, non-repudiable PoI and PoA along with date of birth and
gender.
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b. The technical architecture and security designs could be the same as that of the
eID authentication service.
c. The service could be made available only to registered ISCAs and ISPAs; and is
performed at an agent location using biometric authentication, as well as remotely
using an OTP on a website or mobile connection.
d. Residents could authorize the ISCA through eID authentication using
biometrics/digital certificate/OTP to provide their demographic data along with
their photograph digitally signed and encrypted to service providers.
e. The eKYC service response could be an encrypted and digitally signed XML
containing demographic data along with the photograph of the resident. It could
be used as the eKYC document by the service provider, for delivering services to
the citizen.
7. ESignature service. When a legal document is signed, all parties involved in the signed
activity act on a set of basic assumptions regarding the signature:
The signer intended to sign the document.
The signer is who the person claims to be and is authorized to sign the document.
The signature is that of the signer and is unique to the signer.
The signature binds the signer to whatever the document states.
The document will not be changed once the parties have signed it.
A signature on one document is not transferrable to another document.
The signer cannot later deny or repudiate the signature in an attempt to invalidate his
or her relationship to the document.
The Need for eSignatures
An eSignature is the electronic equivalent of a handwritten signature. eSignatures have
appealed to governments and businesses around the world due to the following reasons:
Accelerate transactions — The requirement for handwritten signatures often result
in lengthy delay in a transaction. eSignatures make possible long-distance
transactions, in which parties are in different time zones or in different countries.
In addition, digital signatures greatly reduces the amount of travel for in-person
meetings, the cost of courier service, and the number of days and salaried hours
needed to complete transactions.
Reduce the amount of paper — Many public and private agencies and
organizations still seek "the paperless office" because of the desire to cut down
on the time, staffing, and storage space required to handle paper-based
transactions.
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eSignatures are divided into two separate categories — (1) digital signatures and (2)
electronic signatures, which is distinguished primarily by the presence or absence of
Public-Key Cryptography (PKC).
Digital Signatures
The term digital signature refers to the encryption and decryption technology used as the
foundation for a variety of security implementations. Based on public and private key
cryptography, digital signatures are used in secure messaging, public key infrastructure,
virtual private networks, and electronic signatures.
Contrary to what the name might suggest, a digital signature alone is not a type of
electronic signature. Rather, digital signature encryption could be used by electronic
signature applications to secure the data and verify the authenticity of a signed record.
Further, a digital signature alone does not capture a person’s intent to sign a document
and be legally bound to an agreement or contract.
Electronic Signatures
An electronic signature employs digital technology to bind a signature to an electronic
document. In its most-secure solutions offered by service providers, the signature is
bound to the document in such a way that neither the document nor the signature can be
altered without invalidating the document.
An electronic signature is, like its paper equivalent, a legal concept. According to the U.S
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, an e-signature is an
“electronic sound, symbol, or process attached to, or associated with, a contract or other
record and adopted by a person with the intent to sign a record.” A digital signature, on
the other hand, refers to the encryption / decryption technology on which an electronic
signature solution is built. A digital signature alone is not a type of electronic signature.
Rather, digital signature encryption secures the data associated with a signed document
and helps verify the authenticity of a signed record. Used alone, it cannot capture a
person’s intent to sign a document or be legally bound to an agreement or contract.
eSigning Process
1. Channel: The resident fills out an application form on the organization’s website, visits a
retail branch, contacts a representative or the call center.
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2. Access: The resident is provided with a link to the e-signing process from within the
application process itself, or an email containing the link is sent to the resident inviting
him / her to the e-signing session.
3. Authentication: The resident enters his / her personal information or credentials, and is
brought into the e-signing session. For in-branch signing, the resident presents his / her
credentials in paper format.
4. Consent: The resident is presented with the E-SIGN Consent form, as required by law. If
he / she does not consent to the use of electronic signatures, the resident is provided
with the ability to sign the documents using pen and paper.
5. Presentation: The resident is presented with all required documents and legal disclosures
on-screen. The documents can also be printed and presented in paper format for in-
person signing sessions.
6. Affirmation: The resident indicates his / her acceptance of legal disclosures and signs and
initials documents by clicking on a button on-screen, or by hand-scripting his / her
signature on a signature capture pad, iPad or other mobile device.
7. Delivery: The resident is provided a secure, tamper-proof copy of the e-signed documents
in electronic format, or in paper format.
8. Mobile ID Service. Some of the technical recommendations for the implementation of the
mobile ID service are listed below and for further details, refer to Annex 4.
a. The mobile ID service could be based on SIM enabled by Wireless Public Key
Infrastructure (wPKI) and supported by standard protection profile. The SIM could
be procured through secure environment and supported mobile phones.
b. The SIM could have Secure-Signature-Creation Device (SSCD) module, with two
key pair; one for authentication, and the other for signing/non-repudiation
purposes.
c. The mobile ID service could be hosted on the EISDP as stateless web service and
the service provider would have to integrate it into their service delivery
application. The service delivery application could be hosted on the ISCA data
center and could, in turn, call the mobile ID service hosted at the EIDAV data center
with the NIN, mobile number and PIN.
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d. In turn, the service validates the mobile number provided as the input with the
mobile number stored in the CRIDS for the resident. After successful validation, it
would call the Trusted Service Provider (TSP) web service hosted in the TSP data
center over the secured Internet connection with the mobile number, verification
code and PIN.
e. In response, the TSP service could generate the verification code and send it to the
ISCA website. It could also generate the signature request with the verification
code, mobile number and PIN and sends it to the resident’s mobile phone using
Over-The-Air (OTA) and SMS gateway of the TSP over the wireless network in SMS
form.
f. The specialized OTA SMS activates the identity verification application on the SIM
card. It could display the verification code which is the same as that displayed on
the computer of the resident. The resident validates the verification code displayed
on the mobile device with the one displayed on the computer and then signs the
request by entering the PIN.
g. On successful authentication, the resident logs in to the secure website.
h. The mobile ID service would require SIM provisioning, user registration, certificate
activation and termination of the service. Further technical details related to these
operations are detailed in Annex 4.
9. Electronic Identity Seeding Service. Some of the technical recommendations for the
implementation of the eID seeding service are listed below.
a. A seeding utility would be a desktop client utility for seeding the NIN in the
resident profile stored in the database of the service provider. The ISCA could
download the utility from EIDAV’s portal and install it on its server as the
executable. The utility provides the capability for data extraction, consolidation,
normalization and matching, and connects to different data sources to pull the
relevant PID from the reference databases. It could also pull the data from the
relevant data tables in the database of the service provider. For further details on
the functioning of the utility, refer to Annex 4.
b. The National Electronic Seeding Platform (NESP) could be a web application hosted
on EIDAV’s public portal. Residents and authorized users (“seeders”) of the service
providers login to submit the seeding request and verify the request (“verifiers”).
The NESP would access the resident data stored in the CRIDS using the web
services, and the resident data in the service enablement database using the web
services or by setting the service enablement database in the NESP. The web
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service for accessing the resident data in the service enablement database could
be hosted on the ISCA server in the ISCA data center. The other option is to
replicate the service enablement database into the database server in the EIDAV
data center as part of the NESP. The NESP could also provide the mechanism to
call the eID authentication service hosted on the EISDP for performing the
demographic and biometric authentication for seeding validation.
6.2 Institutional Recommendations
Some of the institutional recommendations related to the operating models and organizational
structure that would be required for the implementation of the EISDF from the technical and
operating perspectives are listed below.
6.2.1 Operating Model
Electronic Identity Authentication Service
The eID authentication service could be used by the service providers across Vietnam. It would
be governed by a highly scalable operating model based on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to
meet the demands of the service providers today and in the future. Some of the operating model
recommendations for eID Authentication Service are:
1. The eID authentication service could be a delivered as part of the EISDF to all service
providers in Vietnam. Hence, it would be managed and owned by a responsible, national-
level ministry for delivering eID services such as eID authentication to service providers
and not be responsible for any service entitlement. The responsible ministry could set up
an agency, EIDAV, for such a purpose.
2. The responsible ministry would delegate to EIDAV as Managed Identification Service
Provider (MISP) the responsibility to design and implement the eID authentication service
and host it in the EIDAV data center as part of the EISDP. EIDAV could hire a solution
integrator (SI) vendor to implement the service using tender. It could also implement the
registration process for the eID authentication service on the public portal of EIDAV.
3. The public or private service providers wishing to utilize eID services such as eID
authentication to enable its services could sign up as an ISCA and enter into an agreement
with EIDAV.
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4. The ISCA, in turn, could engage with a public or private ISPA. In order to ensure high
security of the centralized store of the resident database that is on the EISDP, only a
limited number of qualified ISPAs could be allowed to connect directly to the servers in
the centralized EIDAV data centers.
5. The ISPA could establish secure connectivity to the eID services servers in the EIDAV data
center to transmit service requests such as eID authentication on behalf of ISCAs and
receive response back.
6. EIDAV could provide standards and specifications that the ISPAs have to comply with to
build and maintain their secure connectivity to the services in the EIDAV data center.
7. The ISCA could have the option to connect to EIDAV’s servers by itself or through an
existing ISPA.
8. Furthermore, the service provider wishing to use eID services such as authentication could
be given the option to choose to become an ISCA, or it may access eID services through
an existing ISCA. In the latter case, it could become a sub-ISCA of the existing ISCA which
it engages.
eKYC Service
Some of the operating model recommendations for eKYC service are described below.
1. Like the eID authentication service, the eKYC service could be managed and owned by
EIDAV.
2. The service provider wishing to utilize the eKYC service to enable its services would sign
up as an ISCA with access to the eKYC service, and enter into an agreement with EIDAV.
3. The ISCA, in turn, would engage with the ISPA to route the service request and receive
response back from the eKYC service hosted in the EIDAV data center through the secure
network of the ISPA.
4. The eKYC service could be performed at an agent location using biometric authentication
as well as remotely using an OTP on a website or mobile connection. As part of the eKYC
process, the resident would authorize the owner-government agency through eID
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authentication using biometrics/digital certificate/OTP to provide their demographic data
along with their photograph digitally signed and encrypted to the service provider.
5. The resident could go to the ISCA and, with the help of an operator or using an Internet-
connected device, access the application to input data for the eKYC service request. The
response is received in encrypted XML that is used as the eKYC document by the service
provider in the service delivery to the citizen.
6. The resident may keep the eKYC response for later use when requesting service from the
registered service providers in Vietnam.
Electronic Identity Seeding Service
Some of the operating model recommendations for eID seeding service are described below.
1. Service providers using eID services in their service delivery process would be responsible
for seeding the eID/NIN in their service enablement database for unique identification of
their CBS.
2. The implementation strategy for NIN/eID seeding in the service enablement database of
service providers would be a combination of several sub-strategies and no one solution
may apply to all cases. Therefore, it would be essential that every seeding process is
thoroughly analyzed and planned before proceeding with actual seeding.
3. As the prerequisite to eID seeding, service providers could prepare their service
enablement database by performing data digitization and data centralization on it. If a
service provider already has its service enablement database digitized and centralized,
then there is no action required from the eID seeding perspective. For detailed description
of data digitization and centralization, refer to Annex 4.
4. Based on data availability and other requirements, the service provider could choose
between the top-down approach and the organic strategy for NIN seeding in their service
enablement database. For detailed description of eID seeding strategies, refer to Annex
4.
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5. In the case of the top-down approach, the service provider could use the offline seeding
utility or the eID Seeding Platform (eSP) for the NIN seeding in one batch. In the case of
organic seeding, the service provider could use the eSP for seeders to send the seeding
request and for the residents to respond; the residents could also come forward
voluntarily.
6. The service providers would have to register with EIDAV to use the offline seeding utility
and register online on EIDAV’s public portal as the seeders and verifiers to use the eSP
platform.
7. The service provider could register as the ISCA on the public portal of EIDAV to perform
the demographic authentication of its CBS profile in its database using the eID
authentication service to validate the seeding process. In cases where demographic
authentication fails, the service provider could investigate the reasons for failure. Some
of the reasons could be:
a. The NIN was seeded into an incorrect record. This could potentially happen in
cases of partial or fuzzy match.
b. The resident updated his/her PID in the Central Identities Data Repository (CIDR)
due to marriage, change of address, update of incorrect information, etc.
c. There was an incomplete KYR+ form or incorrect data captured during enrollment
(e.g., incorrect health insurance card number).
8. Biometric authentication could be enabled for operator-assisted touch-points where a
direct update of service delivery database takes place.
9. The eID seeding services could be designed to address some of the common challenges
during the seeding process. For common seeding challenges and their resolutions, refer
to Annex 4.
Mobile ID Service
Mobile ID service could be governed by a highly scalable PPP-based operating model with four
main operating procedures; namely SIM provisioning, certificate activation, usage and
termination. The operating procedures are operated by entities that are defined in the
organizational structure for mobile ID services later in the document. The recommendations on
the operating procedures are defined below,
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Figure 6.1: Operating Model for Mobile ID Service – SIM Provisioning/Certificate Activation
1. SIM Provisioning
a. The resident wishing to use mobile ID service may go to the nearest outlet of a
mobile operator that is registered with EIDAV as the approved registration
authority (RA).
b. The RA could provision the specialized SIMs with SSCD function that has the
capability to issue a qualified digital certificate/biometrics for authentication and
signing purposes.
c. The RA could verify the identity of the resident by his/her NIN and biometrics
using the eID authentication service. The RA could be registered as the ISCA with
EIDAV to submit the eID authentication service request to the registered ISPA.
d. On successful eID verification, the RA would issue the specialized SIM along with
the secret activation code to the resident in a face-to-face procedure.
e. The RA would declare the SSCD’s device certificate active for that particular SIM
and that information is made available for all TSPs.
2. User Registration/Certificate Activation
a. The resident using his/her mobile phone would initiate the SIM activation
application stored on the SIM. The resident would send a request to have the
qualified certificate activated.
b. The RA would respond to the request by initiating action on the resident’s mobile
device to sign the PID. The PID would include the NIN along with other
demographic details.
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c. The resident would verify the data and sign it by inputting their device certificate
activation code.
d. The RA would receive the signed PID and add supplementary data including the
device certificate, then forward the request for certificate activation to a
certification authority (CA). The RA also sends the service request to EIDAV via a
registered ISPA to update the resident’s identity record with the mobile number.
e. The CA would create and activate a qualified certificate, and make it available to
all TSPs and EIDAV.
f. The resident would be notified of the operation status and given the opportunity
to change the pin.
3. Usage
Figure 6.2: Mobile ID Service Usage Operating Model
a. The resident would use the mobile ID for eID authentication on a secure site,
e.g., online banking.
b. The resident would access the secure website of the ISCA. The supported website
would have the option to click the “Log in with mobile ID” button.
c. The resident would be prompted to enter his/her NIN, registered mobile number
and PIN.
d. The ISCA system would call the EISDF mobile ID web service with the identity
service request giving the NIN, mobile number and PIN via the ISPA to the TSP.
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e. EIDAV’s mobile ID service would validate the mobile number provided with the
stored mobile number for the given NIN and forward the service request to the
TSP along with the mobile number, verification code and PIN. The service would
generate the verification code and send it to the ISCA website.
f. The TSP would generate the signature request with the verification code, mobile
number and PIN and send it to the resident’s mobile phone.
g. The resident would check the verification code on his/her mobile phone with the
one on the website and sign the request by entering the PIN.
h. The TSP would receive the signature data and send it to the CA to validate the
signature data and the certificate.
i. The TSP would forward the response received from the CA to the ISCA via EIDAV
and the ISPA.
j. On successful authentication, the resident logs into the secure website.
4. Termination
a. The resident could stop using the mobile ID service in several ways:
i. The resident informs the RA of his/her wish stop using the service.
ii. The resident informs the RA of lost/compromised SSCD.
iii. The qualified certificate expires.
iv. The RA finds out that the user has violated the user-CA agreement, or
other laws governing mobile ID service.
b. In cases of certificate revocation, the RA will inform the CA of certificate
revocation. Then the CA immediately revokes the certificate and circulates the
updated certificate revocation list (CRL) to all TSPs.
c. In case of SIM blocking due to loss or SIM damage, the device certificate would
be taken out of the list of valid SSCDs available to all TSPs.
6.2.2 Organizational Structure
The section below provides recommendations on the key roles in the organizational structure
to operate and manage the EISDF eID services. For detailed description on the roles and
responsibilities, refer to Annex 4.
1. Electronic Identity Authentication Service: Key Roles
a. Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam. EIDAV could be created with the mandate
of generating the eID and providing EISDF-based eID services such as eID
authentication to eligible service providers in the public and private sectors. This
will enable business functions that require establishing the identity of CBS as well
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as employees. EIDAV could be the overall regulator and overseer of the EISDF eID
services ecosystem. It could also own and manage, either by itself or through an
agency, the CRIDS that contains the NIN and the corresponding PID. EIDAV could
manage the CRIDS and the eID authentication server through an MISP.
b. Managed Identification Service Provider. The MISP could be the entity that offers
eID services such as authentication on behalf of EIDAV. EIDAV could hire one or
more MISP depending on the service request volume. EIDAV would have the
responsibility of implementation and operating the technical architecture of the
EISDP as the MISP in the pilot phase.
c. Identity Service Provider Agency. The ISPA could be government or private
agencies that establish secure connectivity with the EIDAV data center in
compliance with the standards and specifications set by EIDAV to transmit eID
authentication request on behalf of ISCAs and receive response back from eID
authentication servers. Only agencies contracted with EIDAV as ISPAs may send
service requests related to eID authentication; no other entity can directly
communicate with the identity services. An ISPA would be bound to EIDAV through
a formal legal contract. The ISPAs could offer their EIDAV-compliant network
connectivity as a service to one or more ISCA and may transmit the ISCAs’
authentication requests to the EIDAV authentication server. Possible of ISPAs are:
i. A government department such as an MIC telecom department could
become an ISPA and establish a secure EIDAV-compliant leased line
connectivity to the eID authentication servers; through which several
ministries/departments in the country could channel their authentication
requests.
ii. A telecom carrier such as Viettel Group or VNPT could obtain EIDAV’s
approval and establish a secure connection with EIDAV and offer ISPA
services to ISCAs.
iii. A nationalized bank such as the Bank of Vietnam (BoV) could establish a
secure EIDAV-compliant connectivity to eID authentication servers and
offer authentication services and, possibly, value-added services to itself
and other smaller banks.
d. Identity Service Consumer Agency. The ISCA could be any government or private
agency that seeks to use eID services such as authentication to enable one or more
of its services. An ISCA could have the option of connecting to the authentication
server by itself (in which case it needs to get an approval from EIDAV to become
an ISPA), or through an existing ISPA for transmitting its service requests. An ISCA
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could also send a service request from other entities that are “sub-ISCAs”. The
ISCA could act as the aggregator offering authentication services to sub-ISCAs and
offer value-added services such as multi-party authentication, MIS reports and
authorization to the sub-ISCA. An ISCA would have to enter into a formal contract
with EIDAV in order to access EISDF eID services. Potential ISCAs could be:
i. The Vietnam Social Services (VSS) which seeks to authenticate a target
resident before issuing one of its benefits.
ii. A bank which seeks to authenticate its customers before allowing them a
financial transaction such as withdrawal or transfer of funds.
iii. The administration department of a high-security zone that seeks to
authenticate individuals seeking entry into the premises.
iv. A social networking or eCommerce website that seeks to authenticate
customers or subscribers during the registration process.
e. Sub-ISCA. Any legal entity registered in Vietnam desiring to use the EISDF eID
services could become an ISCA, or it could access identity service through an
existing ISCA. In the latter case, it could become a sub-ISCA of its chosen ISCA.
The sub-ISCA would not have a direct contractual relationship with EIDAV. Only
the ISCA is contracted to EIDAV and would be responsible for all service requests
flowing through it, including those originating from its sub-ISCAs. The following
are some possible sub-ISCA:
i. A government department at the provincial level could become an ISCA;
and ministry branches/departments in the region could access the eID
services as sub-ISCAs.
ii. A small business like a local bank which does not want to directly engage
in a formal contract with EIDAV, but still needs to use identity services, may
choose to become a sub-ISCA of an ISCA.
iii. Several entities could combine under a single ISCA for business reasons,
e.g., several hotels could access eID authentication as sub-ISCAs of a hotel
association that becomes an ISCA.
f. Authentication Devices. These could be electronic devices that form a critical link
in the eID authentication service. These devices would collect PID from eID-
holders, prepare the information for transmission, transmit the packets for
authentication and receive the results. They could be either operator-assisted or
self-operated. Examples of eID authentication devices include desktops, laptops,
kiosks, handheld mobile devices, etc., that are, if required, connected to biometric
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devices for capturing fingerprints and iris images. They could be operated by an
ISCA/sub-ISCA or its agents.
g. Electronic Identity-holders. A holder of an eID-based identity is any eligible
individual who has enrolled with and obtained a unique NIN and NID card. In the
context of eID authentication, eID-holders are usually associated with ISCAs/sub-
ISCAs as CBS or employees, and in this capacity seek access to ISCA/sub-ISCA
services. In order for them to gain access, their eID is authenticated using their
PID in the database. Depending on the authentication type sought by the
ISCA/sub-ISCA, the eID-holders would provide their demographic and/or
biometric information.
2. eKYC Service: Key Roles
a. Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam. As in the eID authentication service,
EIDAV could be the overall regulator and overseer of the eKYC service and
supporting ecosystem. EIDAV could determine the operating and engagement
model for the eKYC service and define the eligibility criteria for the MISP and ISCAs.
EIDAV could also determine standards and specifications that could be adhered to
by all those participating in the eKYC ecosystem (including ISPA, ISCA and sub-
ISCA).
b. Managed Identification Service Provider. The MISP could offer eKYC service on
behalf of EIDAV. The MISP’s main areas of responsibility could include eKYC
transaction operations (i.e., receive authentication request, execute a match of PID
received by calling eID authentication service and transmitting the result), network
operations, data center operations, availability of eKYC service, service-level
agreement (SLA) with ISCA, if any, and monitoring operations and performance
metrics.
c. Identity Service Provider Agency. The eKYC service should only be accessible
through the secure network of the ISPA.
d. Identity Service Consumer Agency. The ISCA could be any agency that seeks to use
eKYC service to enable its services. An ISCA could use eKYC service to enable one
or more of its services. It could enter into a formal contract with EIDAV in order to
access EIDAV eKYC service. The ISCA could ensure that the eKYC request
originating at the service request device is compliant with the standards and
specifications prescribed by EIDAV and complete before transmitting the request
to its ISPA. For further details, refer to Annex 4.
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e. Sub-ISCA. Any legal entity registered in Vietnam wishing to use eKYC service to
enable its services could become an ISCA, or access eKYC service through an
existing ISCA. In the latter case, it becomes a sub-ISCA of the ISCA it partners with.
f. Electronic Identity Service Devices. The eID device for eKYC service could be the
same as that used for eID authentication, and have the capability to capture the
inputs required for eKYC service. It could be operator-assisted or self-operated.
Examples of eID service devices include desktops, laptops, kiosks, handheld
mobile devices, etc., that are, if required, connected to biometric devices for
capturing fingerprints and/or iris images. These could be operated by an
ISCA/sub-ISCA or its agents.
g. Electronic Identity-holders. In the context of eKYC service, eID-holders would
usually be the CBS or employees associated with ISCAs or sub-ISCAs, and in this
capacity seek access to ISCAs/sub-ISCA services. In order for them to gain access
to the services, they need to provide their KYC data for registration in eKYC service.
It would be the responsibility of eID-holders to provide consent to the
performance of eKYC service.
3. Mobile ID Service: Key Roles
a. Registration Authority. The RA would typically be the nationalized mobile operator
such as Viettel, Mobiphone, Vinaphone, etc., responsible for the provisioning of
the specialized SIM with SSCD functionality to residents at their service outlets
across the country. A mobile operator would have to register with EIDAV to become
an RA. The mobile network operator (MNO) could work with the national ID project
in the provisioning of specialized SIM.
b. Trusted Service Provider. The TSP could also be the MNO responsible for
forwarding the mobile ID service request from EIDAV to the mobile phone of the
resident over the mobile network. It could also be responsible for sending the
signed data from the mobile phone to the CA and responding back to EIDAV with
the authentication response. Mobile operators would have to register with EIDAV
to become an authorized TSP.
c. Certification Authority. The CA could be responsible for issuing the certificate; it
is also responsible for the validation of the certificate and signed data in response
to the TSP service request. The CA may be competent government entities, such
as VGCA.
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d. Electronic Identification Authority of Vietnam. In the case of mobile ID, EIDAV could
host the service in its data center and would register and hire all the ecosystem
entities in various roles for the scalable delivery of the services.
e. Identity Service Consumer Agency. The ISCA could be any agency that seeks to use
the mobile ID service to enable its services. An ISCA can use mobile ID to enable
one or more of its services.
f. Identity Service Provider Agency. The ISPA could be an agency that establishes
secure connectivity with the mobile ID service hosted on the servers in EIDAV data
center to transmit authentication requests on behalf of ISCAs and receive the
response.
g. Mobile Phone Device with Specialized SIM. The mobile phone with specialized SIM
issued by the RA could initiate the mobile ID service request on the device using
the application and the private keys stored on the SIM.
h. Resident-User. The resident-user could be the individual who has registered with
the RA to get the specialized SIM with SSCD capability and activated digital
certificate/biometrics along with private key on the SIM.
6.3 Policy Recommendations
In order to ensure successful implementation of the EISDF in Vietnam, it may be supported
by national policies to enable the governance structure to provide an auspicious environment.
Some of the recommendations for the policy interventions are described below.
1. The GoV could update the relevant policies to enable eKYC response as the valid legal KYC
document equivalent to the paper-based KYC document for service delivery by the service
providers.
2. Service providers in both the government and private sector such as banking, insurance,
capital markets, telecom, LPG, railways, etc., could update their KYC norms to include the
NIN/eID and eKYC response as the valid KYC.
3. The GoV could define a national policy or update the existing one on data and metadata
standards to include the data and metadata formats of both the demographic and
biometric data fields of the resident to be stored in the centralized national eID database.
There could be a national policy for KYR specifications that complies with the data and
metadata standards.
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4. The existing national policy on the adoption of open standards to promote interoperability
could be updated to include eID data format. It could also include standards for biometric
data such as fingerprint images, fingerprint minutiae, and iris images.
5. The existing national policy on the ESignature Act (EESA) could be reviewed and updated,
as needed, to include requirements on the use of digital certificates or biometrics in the
EISDF as defined in the technical recommendations previously discussed in this chapter.
As a rule, handwritten and eSignatures could be equivalent in both the public and private
sectors. The ESA could also state that public service departments could accept digitally
signed documents. The ESA could ensure that each eSignature uniquely identifies the
signatory, binds the individual to the signed data, and ensures that the signed data cannot
be tampered with retrospectively without invalidating the signature itself.
6. The ESA could mandate stringent financial and procedural requirements to ensure that
Certificate Service Providers (CSPs) and Timestamp Service Providers (TSPs) are set up and
managed properly to perform their function to the highest possible standard.
7. The existing national policy on IT security could be updated to include the security
requirements of the eID and the EISDF as defined in the technical and institutional
recommendations previously discussed in this chapter.
8. The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) could regulate the use of personal data and
databases containing personal information by public authorities and private entities.
There could be an independent data protection inspection department outside the
government; which ensures the requirements of the Act are met and enforces compliance
if necessary. It will report directly to the apex body within the Prime Minister’s office.
Requests by third parties (e.g., representatives of authorities) for private data could be
logged and the logs made available online for the individual on request via the citizen’s
portal.
9. The use of open standards-based technology in eGovernment implementation could be
promoted with the national policy on open standards. It would include standard
specifications for biometric devices, list of approved vendors of biometric devices and
standard specifications for dedicated leased line for the ISPA, etc.
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10. The GoV could pass an act an Identity Documents A (IDA) to establish national guidelines
for the creation of the mandatory NIN, NID card and eID for the residents of the country.
The law would also state that the eID may have the same legal value as that of the NID
card, and decide the purpose of the card and of the number in terms of proof of
citizenship. It could state that the deduplicated and processed resident demographic and
biometric data used for the personalization of the card could also be entered into the
national population register pursuant to the Population Register Act. There could be a
legal provision in the form of a decree for transferring the resident data from the NID
system to EIDAV’s CRIDS for EISDF eID services on a regular basis.
11. The GoV may expedite the enrollment of residents into the new national ID program and
delivery of national ID to all the residents. This may help in the faster delivery of the pilot
of eID as the eID is based on the resident data collected from the national ID program.
6.4 Communication Strategy Recommendations
The communication strategy could include the steps to be taken to build awareness and
promote adoption of the framework among the key stakeholders; such as service providers
in public and private sectors and residents of Vietnam. Some of the recommendations for the
communication strategy are described below.
1. EIDAV could set up a public-facing portal for awareness building among the stakeholders
in the eID ecosystem, and to provide support to the users of the eID authentication
services by publishing documentations related to technical solutions and updates.
2. There could be capacity-building programs in the form of online and classroom trainings
targeted at the residents and officials/operators in the government and private sector
agencies.
3. EIDAV could publish a set of technical documentations targeted at the technical
stakeholders in the eID authentication ecosystem which could include the technical
decision makers, technical architects and developers within EIDAV, and other service
providers responsible for the design, development and maintenance of the eID
authentication system.
4. EIDAV could also publish a set of technical documentations targeted at the software
professionals working in the technology domain such as technical decision makers,
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technical architects and developers in the government and private sector service provider
agencies interested in incorporating eID authentication services into their applications.
An example of technical documentation would be the eID authentication services API
specifications.
5. In order to improve the adoption of the EISDF eID services by providers in the government
and the private sector, EIDAV could set up the development and testing environment in
the form of a publicly available URL (e.g., https://auth.eidav.gov.vn) that could be made
accessible over the Internet and be used by the software developers of service provider
agencies in the development of related applications.
6. In order to improve the adoption of the EISDF eID services such as eID authentication,
EIDAV could provide a reference implementation of an eID authentication client library for
packaging and encrypting authentication data block in different programming languages.
A mechanism could be put in place to promote the development of other programming
language bindings among members of the software programming community for
submission to EIDAV. Developers may be able to download these libraries along with
EIDAV public key, all digitally signed by EIDAV for use within their application.
7. The GoV could set up awareness campaigns among the service providers in the
government and the private sector to leverage the benefits of the EISDF in their business
processes.
8. Awareness campaigns, promotions and incentive programs targeted at early users,
individual residents and the private sector agencies to improve the adoption of the
national identity could be planned and set up. The EISDF eID services could be offered
free of charge to service providers in the pilot phase to promote the adoption of the
services.
6.5 Pilot Implementation Recommendations
The implementation of the EISDF in Vietnam could be done in two phases: the pilot and the
complete rollout. The pilot implementation could be conducted upon the finalization of the
National ID numbering format. Some of the pilot phase implementation recommendations are
listed below.
1. Electronic Identity Service Delivery Platform
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a. Formation of EIDAV: The creation of an independent department in the
government for eID generation and the EISDF eID services delivery and
maintenance.
b. Central Resident Identity Data Store process initialization and periodic update.
i. Instead of recapturing the PID of residents for the CRIDS, it could be
recommended to reuse the PID captured and processed for generation of
the unique NIN and NID card.
ii. There may be a legal provision in the form of a decree for transferring the
resident data from the NID system to EIDAV’s CRIDS for the implementation
of EIDSF eID services.
iii. The PID to be stored in the CRIDS could include the biometric and
demographic data of the resident.
iv. There could be a periodic transfer of new residents’ data from the NID
system to EIDAV as and when new residents are enrolled by the ministry
until all the residents have been issued a NIN and the NID card.
v. It is recommended to have a secure operational model for transferring the
updates in the CRIDS and the NID resident database such as address
change, etc., on an ongoing basis.
c. EIDAV would set up the EIDAV data center following the technical
recommendations for the EISDP as discussed previously in this chapter.
d. EIDAV could set up the registration process for ISPAs and ISCAs on their public
portal. The national telecom operators in Vietnam have the required capabilities
to set up the dedicated secure connectivity to the National Identification Authority
of Vietnam (NIDAV) center. The NIDAV could select the Viettel Group and/or the
VNPT to take up the role of ISPA in the pilot phase.
2. Electronic Identity Authentication Service
a. EIDAV, as the MISP, would have the responsibility of designing and implementing
the eID authentication service then host it its data center on the EISDP. It could
also implement the registration process for eID authentication service on the
public portal of EIDAV.
b. EIDAV could hire the SI vendor to implement the service using a tendering process.
c. The service providers in the government departments and private sector could
register with EIDAV on the public portal for eID authentication service. On approval
by EIDAV, the service providers could install the eID authentication service API on
their service delivery application using their point-of-delivery device following the
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guidelines provided by EIDAV. Then the setting up of the hardware, software,
process and network would be performed.
d. EIDAV would to update the IT policies in Vietnam to enable eID authentication
service as an acceptable means of identity verification by service providers.
e. In order to promote the adoption of the service, it could be offered free of charge
to service providers.
f. EIDAV could set up awareness campaigns for residents and services providers.
There could be capacity-building programs in the form of online and classroom
trainings targeted at the residents and officials/operators in the government and
the private sector. There could be software development training programs
targeted at the developer community in the service provider agencies.
3. Electronic Identity Seeding Service
a. EIDAV could make available the offline seeding utility, the Electronic Seeding
Platform (eSP), and the registration process on the public portal of EIDAV by
delegating the operation to the chosen SI vendor selected using the tendering
process.
b. The government, along with EIDAV, could select one service provider each from
the government and the private sector to pilot the implementation of the eID
seeding service. Public and private entities that may be considered for the pilot
could be the VSS and the VNPT or Viettel, respectively.
c. The selected service providers could prepare the service enablement database by
performing the data digitization and centralization.
d. The selected service providers could register as ISCAs by following the registration
process provided by EIDAV on its public portal.
e. The ISCA could also register for downloading the seeding utility and for requesting
access to the eSP. It could also provide the option to import the service enablement
database or provide the web service details at the time of registration.
f. The ISCA could implement the strategy chosen for seeding by setting up the
programs for collecting the data. On completion of the seeding, the ISCA could
perform the seeding validation using the eSP, the seeding utility, and export the
updated service enablement database to their server in their data center.
4. Electronic Know-your-customer Service
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a. EIDAV have the responsibility to design and implement the eKYC service and host
it in its data center as part of the EISDP. It could also make available the registration
process for eKYC service on the public portal of NIDAV.
b. EIDAV could hire the SI vendor, selected under the tendering process, for
implementing the eKYC service.
c. The selected service providers could register for the eKYC service on EIDAV public
portal. On approval by EIDAV, the service providers could install the eKYC service
on their application following EIDAV guidelines. At this point, the setting up of
the hardware, software, process and network may be performed.
d. EIDAV would update the IT policies in Vietnam to enable the eKYC response as a
valid legal KYC document equivalent to the paper-based version.
e. EIDAV could work with the government departments such as the VSS, the Ministry
of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the Ministry of Environment (MoE),
the Ministry of Finance (MoF) and private sector organizations such as the BoV,
Viettel, etc., to update their KYC norms to include the NIN and the eKYC response
as the valid KYC document.
f. In order to promote the adoption of the service, it could be offered free of charge
to the service providers.
5. Mobile Identity Service
a. EIDAV would have the responsibility to design and implement the mobile ID service
and host it in the EIDAV data center as part of the EISDP.
b. EIDAV could delegate the implementation and operation of mobile ID services to
the national telecom operators such as Viettel and VNPT.
c. The selected telecom operator could leverage its existing SIM manufacturers to
build new mobile ID SIMs following the technical specifications provided.
d. The telecom operator could set up the necessary infrastructure in its outlets for
SIM provisioning to perform the role of mobile ID RA.
e. The telecom operator could provide training to residents in user registration and
activation of their mobile ID and also in using the mobile for eID authentication.
f. The telecom operator could implement the process of the provisioning of digital
certificate by the VGCA. The VGCA could also provision OCSP service for digital
certificate validation at the time of identity authentication using the mobile ID
service.
g. The service provider wishing to use the mobile ID as the mechanism for eID
authentication would need to update its existing service delivery application to use
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the mobile ID service. The telecom operator could extend support to the service
provider in installing the mobile ID service into its service delivery application.
h. The service providers could provide online and offline training to their end-
customers to use the mobile ID for validating their identity.
i. The mobile operator could set up the necessary technical infrastructure in its data
centers as described in the technical recommendations for the mobile ID service.
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7.0 Budget Estimates
7.1 Estimation Basis
The budget estimate for the design and implementation of the Electronic Identity Service Delivery
Framework (EISDF) includes the budget for the initial pilot project and the subsequent complete
rollout of the framework in the country. The high-level budget estimate for the implementation
of the vision of the framework is based on the information of the Government of Vietnam (GoV)
and the proposed private sector setup. The estimates have been calculated based on the average
investment index estimation method. This method leverages the budget estimates of the
representative typical projects from a large number of similar projects so as to estimate the
typical project investment scale based on which the investments of the project and the planned
total budget estimates are calculated. The budget estimates provided here are for guidance only
and may not necessarily be used for budgeting purposes. It may, however, keep the GoV and
implementation agencies abreast of the possible magnitude of investment required for the design
and implementation of such framework. Further due diligence would be required to arrive at the
accurate estimates based on the implementation details with knowledge of the current setup and
additional capabilities to be added for the implementation of the framework.
7.2 Budget Details
The budget estimates include the design, implementation and operation of the centralized
infrastructure for the Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam (EIDAV), Identity Service Provider
Agencies (ISPAs) and Identity Service Consumer Agencies (ISCAs). The budget estimates for the
mobile IDs, Registration Authority (RA), and Trusted Service Providers (TSPs) is also provided to
implement the optional mobile ID service. The estimates include the cost of the physical
infrastructure (construction of new buildings, electricity, water, and furniture) and IT
infrastructure (hardware, software, networking equipment). The latter also includes design and
development of software applications, and development of the standards and operational
processes. In addition to the infrastructures, the cost takes in to consideration the salaries of
staff and the capacity-building programs for all the stakeholders in the ecosystem. The operating
cost includes the budget for running and maintaining the infrastructure and institutional setup
for a period of one year for the pilot, and for five years for the complete rollout in the country.
The project could be implemented in two phases. The first phase could be the pilot phase
followed by the complete rollout phase.
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7.2.1 Budget Estimates for Pilot Phase without Mobile IDs
The budget estimates for the pilot phase include the setup and implementation of the IT and
institutional infrastructures for the centralized EIDAV, one ISPA and two ISCAs. Each ISCA would
have one service delivery outlet in the urban district of Hanoi. The ISPA selected for the pilot could
be either Viettel or the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT), and the ISCA could
be Viettel or the VNPT and the Vietnam Social Security (VSS). The RA and TSP could be Viettel or
the VNPT. The resident demographic and biometric data to be kept in EIDAV’s Centralized
Resident Identity Database Store (CRIDS) would be imported from the database of the resident
data captured by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) for their national identity pilot. It is assumed
that the resident data captured in this national identity pilot going on currently is at least for one
million residents. The breakdown of the capital and operating budget estimates for the pilot
phase is detailed in the table below.
Capital Operating
Budget Budget
Particulars (K USD) (K USD)
EIDAV Data Center (A1) $20,966.00 $3,144.90
EIDAV Disaster Recovery Center (A2) $16,263.00 $2,439.45
Geographical Data Backup Center (A3) $610.00 $91.50
MPS Data Migration (A4) $1,100.00 $165.00
EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructure
(A=A1+A2+A3+A4) $38,939.00 $5,840.85
ISPA Data Center (B1) $5,554.50 $833.18
ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructure (B=B1) $5,554.50 $833.18
ISCA Data Center (C1) $2,437.40 $365.61
ISCA Service Delivery Outlets (C2) $29.18 $4.38
ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructure
(C=C1+C2) $2,466.58 $369.99
Awareness, Trainings and Capacity Building
(D) $100.00 $0.00
National IT Standards and Policies (E) $100.00 $0.00
Total Budget = (J = A+B+C+D+E) $47,160.08 $7,044.02
Total (Capital + Operating Budget) $54,204.10
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Table 1: Breakdown of Pilot Phase Budget Estimates
As shown in the table above, the total investment for the pilot phase is estimated at USD 54.2
million. It includes the capital cost of USD 47.16 million and the operating cost of USD 7.04
million for the first year.
The breakdown of the pilot phase capital budget estimate is described below.
1. EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimate for the design and
implementation of the centralized physical, IT and institutional infrastructures is at USD
38.94 million. It includes the design and implementation of the centralized EIDAV data
center, the disaster recovery center and the geographical data backup center. The budget
estimate for each data center includes the setup of the physical building, interiors,
electricity, water and furniture; setup of IT infrastructure such as hardware, software and
networking equipment; and design, development and deployment of custom and
packaged applications. It also includes the cost for setting up the IT infrastructure
between the NID system and the EIDAV data center for migration of the resident data to
the EIDAV data center from the NID system.
2. ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of the ISPA data center at Vittel/VNPT is USD 5.56 million. It includes the
design and implementation of the ISPA data center. The budget estimate for setting up
the ISPA data center includes the design, architecture and the implementation of the IT
infrastructure (hardware, software and network), procurement of the IT infrastructure
following the design and EIDAV’s IT specifications.
ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of two ISCA data center and one service delivery outlet for each ISCA in
Viettel/VNPT and the VSS is USD 2.47 million. It includes the design and implementation
of the ISCA data centers and the service delivery outlets for each ISCA. The budget
estimates for setting up the data center and the service delivery outlets include the design,
architecture and the implementation of the IT infrastructure following the design and
EIDAV IT specifications. It also include the design, development and deployment of
custom point of sales (PoS) applications, customization of the existing PoS applications
to integrate with EIDAV’s identity services, the seeding of the NIN in the database of the
existing line of business (LoB) and PoS applications.
3. Awareness, Trainings and Capacity Building. The budget estimates include the capacity-
building trainings for all the stakeholders of the ecosystem, technical and process- related
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trainings for the stakeholders, and awareness programs and online and in-person training
for the residents and users of the mobile ID and other identity services of the EISDF. The
budget estimate for the awareness, trainings and capacity building is at USD 100,000.
4. National IT Standards and Policies. The budget estimates for setting up the government
and private sector committees for developing and ratifying the government policies and
IT standards is at USD 100,000.
The breakdown of the pilot phase operating budget estimate is described below.
1. EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the operation of
centralized physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for one year is USD 5.84 million.
It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as monthly
electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries. It also
includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking equipment,
salaries of IT staff in the data center, disaster recovery center, and data backup center. In
addition, it includes the continuous migration and management of the data from the NID
system to the EIDAV data center.
2. ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the operation of the ISPA
data centers’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for one year is at USD 833,180.
It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as monthly
electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries. It also
includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking equipment
and salaries of IT staff in the data center.
ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimate for the operation of the data
center’s and service delivery outlets’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for one
year is at USD 369,990. It includes the operation and maintenance of physical
infrastructure such as monthly electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the
premises, and staff salaries. It also includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware,
software and networking equipment, salaries of IT staff in the data center and service
delivery staff in the outlets.
7.2.2 Budget Estimates for Implementation of Optional Mobile IDs in the Pilot
Phase
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The budget estimates for the implementation of optional mobile ID service in the pilot phase is
described below. The budget estimates are based on the roll out 10,000 mobile IDs, one RA and
one TSP in the pilot phase.
The breakdown of the capital and operating budget estimates for the implementation of optional
mobile ID in the pilot phase is detailed in the table below.
Capital Operating
Budget Budget
Particulars (K USD) (K USD)
RA Data Center (D1) $2,218.70 $332.81
RA Service Delivery Outlets (D2) $14.59 $2.19
SIM Provision (D3) $50.00 $0.00
RA IT and Institutional Infrastructure
(D=D1+D2+D3) $2,283.29 $335.00
TSP Data Center (E1) $1,903.70 $285.56
TSP IT and Institutional Infrastructure (E=E1) $1,903.70 $285.56
Total Budget = (K = D+E) $4,186.99 $620.56
Total (Capital + Operating Budget) $4,807.55
Table 2: Breakdown of Pilot Phase Budget Estimates for Mobile ID Implementation
As shown in the table above, the total investment for the implementation of optional mobile ID
in the pilot phase is estimated at USD 4.81 million. It includes the capital cost of USD 4.19 million
and the operating cost of USD 620,000 for the first year.
The breakdown of the capital budget estimates for the implementation of optional mobile ID in
the pilot phase capital is described below.
1. RA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of the RA data center and one service delivery outlet at Viettel/VNPT is at
USD 2.28 million. It includes the design and implementation of the RA data center and the
service delivery outlet. The budget estimates for setting up the data center and the service
delivery outlet include the design, architecture and the implementation of the IT
infrastructure following the design and EIDAV IT specifications. It also includes the design,
development and deployment of the custom POS applications, customization of the
existing POS applications for the provisioning of the mobile ID SIMs (assuming the use of
SIM cards), activation of digital certificates or biometrics, and seeding of the NIN in the
resident database of the service provider.
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2. TSP IT and Institutional infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of the TSP data center at Viettel/VNPT is at USD 1.90 million. The budget
estimates for setting up the data center include the design, architecture and the
implementation of the IT infrastructure following the design and EIDAV IT specifications.
The breakdown of the operating budget estimate for the implementation of optional mobile ID in
the pilot phase is described below.
1. RA IT and Institutional Infrastructure. Budget estimate for the operation of the data center
and service delivery outlets’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for one year is at
USD 334,990. It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such
as monthly electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries.
It also includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking
equipment, salaries of IT staff in the data center and service delivery staff in the outlets.
2. TSP IT and Institutional Infrastructure. Budget estimates for the operation of data centers’
physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for one year is at USD 285,560. It includes
the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as monthly electricity and
water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries. It also includes the
maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking equipment and salaries
of IT staff in the data center.
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7.2.3 Budget Estimates for Complete Rollout Phase without Mobile IDs
Total Total
Capital Operating Capital Operating
Budget Budget Budget Budget
Particulars (K USD) (K USD) Units (M USD) (M USD)
EIDAV Data Center (A1) $9,160.00 $22,594.50 1 $9.16 $22.59
EIDAV Disaster Recovery Center (A2) $9,160.00 $22,594.50 1 $9.16 $22.59
Geographical Data Backup Center (A3) $830.00 $457.50 1 $0.83 $0.46
MPS Data Migration (A4) $500.00 $375.00 1 $0.50 $0.38
EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructure (A = A1+A2+A3+A4) $19.65 $46.02
ISPA Data Center (B1) $5,554.50 $4,167.08 2 $11.11 $8.33
ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructure (B = B1) $11.11 $8.33
ISCA Data Center (C1) $1,218.70 $914.03 20 $24.37 $18.28
ISCA Service Delivery Outlets (C2) $14.59 $10.94 2,480 $36.18 $27.14
ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructure (C = C1+C2) $60.56 $45.42
Awareness, Trainings and Capacity Building
(D) $1,000.00 1 $1.00 $0.00
National IT Standards and Policies (E) $200.00 1 $0.20 $0.00
Total Budget = (J = A+B+C+D+E) $92.52 $99.77
Total (Capital + Operating Budget) $192.29
Table 3: Breakdown of Rollout Phase Budget Estimates
As shown in the table above, the total investment for the complete rollout phase is estimated at
USD 192.29 million. It includes the total capital cost of USD 92.52 million and the total operating
cost of 99.77 million for five years.
The budget estimates for the complete rollout include the addition of the capacity to the IT and
institutional infrastructures setup during the pilot phase of the centralized EIDAV. It also includes
the setup and implementation of the IT and institutional infrastructures for one more ISPA apart
from the one set up during the pilot phase. About 20 additional ISCAs would be set up with 124
outlets (one per province and one per 10 districts) for each ISCA for the service delivery to the
residents. Ten additional RAs would be set up with 100 outlets for each RA, and two additional
TSPs. In addition, it includes the budget estimates for capacity building efforts and setup of the
EISDF standards and government policies that may be required for the implementation of the
framework and the eID system.
The breakdown of the capital budget estimates for the complete rollout phase is detailed below:
1. EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for extending the capacity of
the centralized physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for the complete rollout of the
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framework is at USD 19.65 million. It includes enhancing the capacity of the centralized
EIDAV data center, the disaster recovery center, and the geographical data backup center.
The budget estimates for each data center include additional electricity capacity, water
and furniture; additional IT infrastructure such as hardware, software and networking
equipment to meet the requirements for the complete rollout. It also includes the cost of
design, development and deployment of custom and packaged applications and
enhancement and updating of the existing applications. In addition, it includes the cost
of the enhancement of the IT infrastructure between the NID system and the EIDAV data
center, for migration of the resident data to the EIDAV data center.
2. ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of two additional ISPA data center at Vittel/VNPT or of other provider
agencies to cater the needs of all the ISCAs is at USD 11.11 million. It includes the design
and implementation of the ISPA data center. The budget estimates for setting up the ISPA
data center include the design, architecture and the implementation of the IT
infrastructure (hardware, software and network), procurement of the IT infrastructure
following the design and EIDAV IT specifications.
ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and the
implementation of 20 ISCAs data center and 124 service delivery outlets (one per province
and one for 10 districts each) for each ISCA is at USD 60.56 million. It includes the design
and implementation of the ISCA data centers and the service delivery outlets for each
ISCA. The budget estimates for setting up the data centers and the service delivery outlets
include the design, architecture and the implementation of the IT infrastructure following
the design and EIDAV IT specifications. It also includes the design, development and
deployment of the custom PoS applications, customization of the existing PoS applications
to integrate with EIDAV’s eID services, seeding of the NIN in the database of the existing
LoB and PoS applications.
3. Awareness, Trainings and Capacity Building. Budget estimates include the capacity
building trainings for all stakeholders of the ecosystem, technical and process-related
trainings for the stakeholders, and awareness programs for the residents and users of the
mobile ID and other eID services of the EISDF. The budget estimates for the awareness,
trainings and capacity building is at USD 1 million, in addition to the pilot budget for
capacity building.
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4. National IT Standards and Policies. Budget estimates for setting up the government and
private sector committees for developing and ratifying the government policies and IT
standards is at USD 0.2 million.
The breakdown of the operating budget estimates for the complete rollout phase for five years
of operation is detailed in the table below.
1. EIDAV IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the operation of the
national-level centralized physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for five years is at
USD 46.02 million. It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure
such as monthly electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff
salaries. It also includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and
networking equipment, salaries of IT staff in data center, the disaster recovery center, and
the data backup center. In addition it includes the continuous data migration and
management of information from the NID system to the EIDAV data center.
2. ISPA IT and Institutional Infrastructure. Budget estimates for the operation of centralized
data centers’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for five years for two ISPAs is at
USD 8.33 million. It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure
such as monthly electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff
salaries. It also includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and
networking equipment and salaries of IT staff in data center.
3. ISCA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimate for the operation of the data
centers’ and service delivery outlets’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for five
years for 20 ISCAs and their 124 service delivery outlets is at USD 45.42 million. It includes
the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as monthly electricity and
water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries. It also includes the
maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking equipment, salaries of
IT staff in the data center and the service delivery staff in the outlets.
7.2.4 Budget Estimates for Optional Mobile ID in the Complete Rollout Phase
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The budget estimates for the implementation of optional mobile ID service as part of the complete
roll out phase is described below. The budget estimates are based on the roll out of 90 million
mobile IDs, two RA, 200 RA service delivery outlets and one TSP in the rollout phase.
The breakdown of the capital and operating budget estimates for the implementation of optional
mobile ID in the rollout phase is detailed in the table below.
Total Total
Capital Operating Capital Operating
Budget Budget Budget Budget
Particulars (K USD) (K USD) Units (M USD) (M USD)
RA Data Center (D1) $2,218.70 $1,664.03 2 $4.44 $3.33
RA Service Delivery Outlets (D2) $14.59 $10.94 200 $2.92 $2.19
SIM Provision (D3) $44,950.00 $0.00 1 $44.95 $0.00
RA IT and Institutional Infrastructure (D = D1+D2+D3) $52.31 $5.52
TSP Data Center (E1) $1,903.70 $1,427.78 1 $1.90 $1.43
TSP IT and Institutional Infrastructure (E=E1) $1.90 $1.43
Total Budget = (K = D+E) $54.21 $6.94
Total (Capital + Operating Budget) $61.15
Table 4: Breakdown of Rollout Phase Budget Estimates for Mobile ID Implementation
As shown in the table above, the total investment for the implementation of optional mobile ID
in the complete rollout phase is estimated at USD 61.15 million. It includes the capital cost of
USD 54.21 million and the operating cost of USD 6.94 million for the first five years.
The breakdown of the rollout phase capital budget estimate for the implementation of optional
mobile ID is described below.
1. RA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of two new RA data centers and 100 service delivery outlet for each RA at
Viettel/VNPT, or other mobile operators’ data center and existing outlet is at USD 52.31
million. It includes the design and implementation of the RA data center and the service
delivery outlets. The budget estimates for setting up the data center and the service
delivery outlet include the design, architecture and the implementation of the IT
infrastructure following the design and EIDAV IT specifications. It also includes the design,
development and deployment of the custom PoS applications, customization of existing
PoS applications for the provisioning of the mobile ID SIM cards, activation of digital
certificates or biometrics, and seeding of the NIN in the resident database of the service
provider. In addition, it includes the cost of 90 million mobile ID-based SIM provisioning
in addition to the 100,000 envisioned for the pilot phase.
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2. TSP IT and Institutional Infrastructure. Budget estimates for the design and
implementation of one additional TSP data centers at Viettel/VNPT, or of other mobile
operator is ate USD 1.90 million. The budget estimates for setting up the data center
could include the design, architecture and implementation of the IT infrastructure
following the design and EIDAV IT specifications.
The breakdown of the rollout phase operating budget estimate for the implementation of optional
mobile ID is described below.
1. RA IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimates for the operation of the data
centers’ and service delivery outlets’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for five
years for two RAs and their 200 service delivery outlets is at USD 5.52 million. It includes
the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructure such as monthly electricity and
water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and salaries of the staff. It also includes the
maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking equipment, salaries of
IT staff in the data center and the service delivery staff in the outlets.
2. TSP IT and Institutional Infrastructures. Budget estimate for the operation of the data
centers’ physical, IT and institutional infrastructures for five years for one TSP is at USD
1.43 million. It includes the operation and maintenance of physical infrastructures such
as monthly electricity and water, repair and cleanliness of the premises, and staff salaries.
It also includes the maintenance and upgrade of hardware, software and networking
equipment, and salaries of IT staff in the data center.
7.2.5 Total Budget Estimate without Mobile ID
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Capital Operting Total
Budget Budget Budget
(M USD) (M USD) (M USD)
Pilot Phase with 1 year of Operation (A) $ 47.16 $ 7.04 $ 54.20
Complete Rollout Phase with 5 years of
Operation (B) 99.77
$ 92.52 $ $ 192.29
Total Budget (C=A+B) $139.68 $ 106.81 $ 246.49
Table 5: Total Budget for EISDF Implementation
As shown in the table above, the total budget estimated for the pilot phase with one year of
operation is at USD 54.20 million, and the total budget estimated for the complete rollout phase
with five years of operation is at USD 192.29 million. Overall budget estimated for the
implementation of the EISDF in Vietnam in two phases (pilot and rollout) is at USD 246.49 million.
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8.0 Annexes
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Annex 1
1. Types of Identity Tokens
An individual identity may be created and authenticated by providing three types of identity
tokens:
What the user knows. Examples are username, password, PIN, and secret questions and answers.
They may be used for electronic authentication only. They are never used for physical
authentication as, once they are known to another person, they lose their value for identity
verification.
What the user has. Examples are paper identity card, health insurance card, access card, ATM
card, and mobile phone. For this type, authentication may be done electronically and/or manually
on the form of the token. For instance, paper identity card and health insurance card may only
be manually authenticated, while ATM card and access card may be electronically authenticated.
These are currently the most common forms of identity token in Vietnam.
Who the user is. Examples are fingerprints, iris patterns, facial photo, body marks, and voice.
For this type, authentication can be both electronic and manual. However, manual authentication
is done mostly on the facial photo that is printed on an identity card.
II. Service Providers’ Authentication Type Selection Criteria
The authentication type selected by the service provider may be based on the following criteria:
1. Level and type of risk, and impact on the resident in case of inaccurate authentication at
the time of service delivery. Type of risk and impact on the resident include inconvenience
and distress, financial loss, and breach of security and privacy.
2. Level and type of risk, and impact on the service provider in case of inaccurate
authentication on the business transaction. Type of risk and impact on the service
provider include financial loss, business squeeze, breath of security and privacy, and
threat to national security.
3. Cost and logistics of implementing a certain type of authentication. For instance,
biometrics will require investment in devices and resident presence, while OTP requires
residents to have a mobile phone.
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4. Volume of authentications based on number of beneficiaries and frequency of
authentication required. For instance, stronger assurance level may be appropriate for
KYC purpose of one-time account opening or service issuance compared to a lower
assurance requirement for frequent transactions such as delivery of services.
In cases where there is higher risk of identity misuse, multi-factor authentication may be
considered to eliminate occurrence of such instances.
III. Supports Self-service and Operator-assisted Service Delivery Scenarios
Scenario 1: Operator-assisted transaction using the PoS terminal at the designated service
delivery location
1. In this scenario, the resident could go to the designated service delivery location (e.g.,
public or private) to request a service. The resident presents the NIN and the required
demographic, biometric and digital personal identity data for reading by the terminal
device of the service provider. In the case of digital certificate or biometrics, the terminal
device would have the capability to read it from the smart card with the use of a card
reader or from the mobile ID.
2. The service operator feeds the resident’s identity data to the eID authentication-enabled
application software that is installed on the authorized terminal device. In the case of
mobile ID, the residents would authenticate themselves by providing the PIN on their
mobile phone.
3. The software application packages the input parameters, encrypts, and sends them to the
centralized EISDF eID authentication service over a mobile or broadband network.
4. EISDF eID authentication service returns with a “yes/no” based on the match of the input
parameters.
5. Based on the response from the eID authentication service, service provider conducts the
transaction accordingly.
Scenario 2: Self-service transaction using mobile, kiosk, or Internet-connected device
1. In this scenario, the resident may conduct a self-service transaction using the eID
authentication service on the mobile or on an Internet-enabled device such as tablet, PC,
kiosk, laptop, etc.
2. The resident inputs the transaction data on the mobile/Internet-connected device to
access the mobile/Internet-enabled service delivery application of the service provider.
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3. The resident provides the NIN, the necessary demographic data or digital
certificate/biometrics along with OTP in addition to service provider-specific attributes
(may be domain specific account number, password, PIN, etc.). In the case of digital
certificate, the resident may also use the mobile ID supported by EISDF. Biometric data
such as fingerprints are also possible although not yet common on the mobile or PC.
However, the EISDF could provide the standard specification for the biometric device (UID
or otherwise) and circulate the list of approved vendors of such device.
4. Steps 3, 4, and 5 are the same as in scenario 1 above.
Scenario 3: Testing environment for Service providers and software developers
1. Service providers may use the development and testing environment provided by the
EISDF to build their software application that could use the eID authentication service.
2. The EISDF could provide a public URL (e.g., https://auth.EIDAV.gov.vn ) where software
developers may go to access the APIs for eID authentication services.
3. This would help in checking the installation of the eID software on the service provider
devices and servers.
IV. Electronic Identity Seeding Utilities and Platform
Seeding Utility
The EISDF could provide the seeding utility to service providers to perform common activities
including data extraction, consolidation, normalization and matching. The service provider would
need to register in the system and sign the agreement to use the utility for only the intended
purposes. Some of the features of this tool may be:
1. Source Data Extraction. The utility would be able to connect to different data sources to
pull the relevant Personal Identity Data (PID) from the reference database. It would also
pull the data from the relevant data tables in the service delivery database of the service
provider.
2. Matching and Seeding. The utility would provide the capability in which one or more PID
equivalent fields (name, date of birth, age, gender) from resident records in the service
delivery database may be matched with equivalent fields in PID records from the reference
database. The mapping thus created may be exported to Excel for further review and
approval by a competent authority appointed by the service provider. The utilities’
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functionality of match and seed would be limited only to the creation of the mapping and
their export. It is expected that based on mapped data, service providers would create
custom SQL scripts to update the service delivery database.
3. Demographic Authentication. In order to verify whether seeding has been done accurately,
it is essential that the resident records in the service delivery database are authenticated
demographically. The objective of demographic authentication is to check whether the
NIN and PID fields are mapped correctly and are in line with the data in the CRIDS. Post
demographic authentication, the authentication status may be marked as “pass/fail”. In
the case of “fail”, error code may indicate and explain the reason for authentication failure
that may be used for investigation purposes. The prerequisite to demographic
authentication is service provider enrollment in the system to call the eID authentication
service for demographic authentication.
Centralized eID Seeding Platform
The EISDF could provide the centralized eID Seeding Platform (eSP) as part of the Electronic
Identity Service Delivery Platform (EISDP) which would enable converging various seeding
channels into one central staging area. The eSP would be accessible to operators in various
service delivery organizations for the verification of seeding and inclusion into their service
delivery databases. It would support efficient and seamless seeding of the NIN into the service
provider databases, thereby enabling faster adoption of eID-enabled service delivery in Vietnam.
The seeding requests would go to the eSP from various input channels. A seeding request is a
submission of the NIN and corresponding beneficiary/subscriber/customer identifier (ID) to be
linked to the service delivery system.
The eSP may be published on the public portal of EIDAV and may be accessed by the resident
directly to submit the seeding request. Authorized users from service provider organizations may
have login-based access to submit seeding requests (“seeders”) on behalf of residents.
Authorized users from service provider organizations may have login-based access to validate
seeding requests (“verifiers”). Verifiers may process seeding requests by comparing the PID of the
resident from the CRIDS (made available to eSP through web services) with the PID of the resident
from the scheme beneficiary database (made available on eSP either through a web service or
setup on the eSP database itself by the scheme administrator).
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V. ESignature
eSignatures are divided into two separate categories — (1) digital signatures and (2) electronic
signatures, which is distinguished primarily by the presence or absence of Public-Key
Cryptography (PKC).
Digital Signatures
The term digital signature refers to the encryption and decryption technology used as the
foundation for a variety of security implementations. Based on public and private key
cryptography, digital signatures are used in secure messaging, public key infrastructure, virtual
private networks, and electronic signatures.
Contrary to what the name might suggest, a digital signature alone is not a type of electronic
signature. Rather, digital signature encryption could be used by electronic signature applications
to secure the data and verify the authenticity of a signed record. Further, a digital signature alone
does not capture a person’s intent to sign a document and be legally bound to an agreement or
contract.
The digital signature for which the most full-featured and, arguably, the most secure type of e-
signature relies on Public-key cryptography to authenticate identity. Public-key cryptography
involves a pair of mathematically related keys:
• The "private key," known only by the signer, can be used to sign a message that only the
corresponding "public key" holder can verify.
• The public and private keys are very large, randomly generated prime numbers, and it is
computationally infeasible to distinguish one from the other. By issuing and managing public and
private keys, public-key infrastructure (PKI) enables very strong authentication, integrity and
nonrepudiation.
• Because the crypto functions bind mathematically with a hash (a unique representation)
of the document, any change negates the signature (the hash of the document being the
document encoded with a one-way hash algorithm).
Further, because a Certification Authority vouches for the certificate holder, PKI can provide a
higher level of assurance of signer identity and authentication. The primary risk related to a digital
signature is the compromise of the private key.
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In a PKC-based signature, the encrypted hash could match the message content; otherwise, the
digital signature is void. Thus, a digital signature cannot be copied from one message and applied
to another because it is bound to specific message content — any changes to the message could
invalidate the signature. Because the signature is based on a protected private key known only to
the user, the safety of the key is of critical importance. Figure 1 10is a graphic representation of
the digital signature process. Table 1 provides an outline of the signing and encryption process.
Figure 1. The digital signature process
Table 1. Signing and Encrypting a Message Using PKC
Possession of At the beginning of or during the transaction, the
Public and Private participants could acquire one another's public keys
Keys (similar to looking up a number in a telephone book).
Public keys are often stored and retrieved from
directories or are included with a signed e-mail message.
At no time does the private key of either party leave the
owner's possession.
10 Source from Gartner
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Sender Uses Hash A hash function is a one-way algorithm that transforms a
Function to Create string of characters into a shorter fixed-length value. The
Hash or Message result of this calculation is commonly called the "hash" or
Digest "hash value."
Message Signed The sender's private key is then used to encrypt the hash
With Digital to produce the digital signature, which is appended to
Signature the message.
Message Sent This digitally signed message is sent "in the clear" to the
recipient. Once the message has been sent, any further
change to the message contents will result in the digital
signature being corrupted (because any change in the
message will result in hash values no longer matching).
Message Verified The recipient generates the hash from the message itself
Through Matching using the same one-way hash function.
The encrypted hash that came with the message is
decrypted using the sender's public key, and the results
are compared.
If the two hashes match, the message can be treated as
genuine and authentic. Nonmatching hashes can indicate
impersonation, message alteration or an error in
transmission. In any case, the message is considered
corrupted or a forgery.
Message Encrypted To ensure the confidentiality and privacy of the message
(Optional) content, the entire message can be encrypted using the
recipient's public key.
Message Decrypted If the sender has encrypted the entire message, the
(If Applicable) message is returned to clear text through decryption
using the recipient's private key.
Time Stamping The digital signature can be "time stamped" to allow the
transaction to be traced in the future or to verify that a
transaction was conducted in a timely fashion.
Electronic Signatures
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An electronic signature employs digital technology to bind a signature to an electronic document.
In its most-secure solutions offered by service providers, the signature is bound to the document
in such a way that neither the document nor the signature can be altered without invalidating the
document.
An electronic signature is, like its paper equivalent, a legal concept. According to the U.S
Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, an eSignature is an “electronic sound,
symbol, or process attached to, or associated with, a contract or other record and adopted by a
person with the intent to sign a record.” A digital signature, on the other hand, refers to the
encryption / decryption technology on which an electronic signature solution is built. A digital
signature alone is not a type of electronic signature. Rather, digital signature encryption secures
the data associated with a signed document and helps verify the authenticity of a signed record.
Used alone, it cannot capture a person’s intent to sign a document or be legally bound to an
agreement or contract. Table 2 below details the basics of an eSignature.
Table 2. Basic Elements of an eSignature
Electronic Document
An electronic document,
transaction or record
requiring a legal signature
Intent to Comply The very process of creating the e-signature is what is
known legally as an "affirmative act," making clear to
The intent to agree the signer that the signature is a legal agreement.
to/comply with the
content of the document
or nature of the
transaction
Mark or Representation This signature could clearly identify what is being
signed and be attached in such a way that the signer is
A mark or representation associated with the document.
unique to the signer that
becomes an integral part The signature could be generated from information in
of the document, the secure, sole possession of the signer or in a way
transaction or record that is uniquely bound to the individual.
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Verification In the most-secure e-signature applications, verification
is accomplished by matching the eSignature against a
Verification that the mark known piece of authentic information.
or representation is
indeed that of the signer
for nonrepudiation and to
avoid fraud, forgery and
impersonation
Types of eSignature — Biometric
In a biometrics-based signature, the characteristics of a fingerprint, the iris of an eye, a sound
or the dynamics of a handwritten signature are encoded digitally and then stored and transmitted
by computer to verify identity. These unique human characteristics can be linked to a specific
person's biological information, separating the person scientifically from anyone else. The key
steps in ensuring identity are similar to those for paper signatures. With biometric data, a 100
percent match is not probable. The government or the private sector could determine the
acceptable parameters. If the parameters are too generous, false matches can allow access by
unauthorized persons, and if the parameters are too strict, false negatives will deny legitimate
users. Table 3 shows the authentication process used to verify a fingerprint signature.
Table 3. Biometric Authentication for a Fingerprint Signature
Create Reference Person's fingerprint is scanned to create reference template
Template to be stored in a central database or token, along with other
personal information.
Store in Database Reference template is stored in central database or token,
along with other personal information.
Authenticate Request To authenticate, person places finger on reader. Reader
sends digitized fingerprint (sample) to central database.
Authentication Sample is compared with reference template. If it matches —
Through Matching within a certain tolerance threshold — the person's identity
is authenticated.
Signature pads or tablets are the end-user interface for some types of signature products. These
portable devices have screens (similar to those on handheld computers) on which the user
physically signs with a stylus or pen. While standard imaging technology permits an image such
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as a pen-and-ink signature or document to be scanned and the results stored, signature pads
permit the signature to be captured in a way that permits analysis of additional characteristics,
such as handwriting speed and stylus pressure. For the user, these devices have the advantage
of being similar to a pen-and-ink signature, which improves the acceptance of signing within the
workflow and shows strong intent. The resulting signatures are verified when the stored digitized
image is compared for verification.
Types of eSignature — Neither Digital nor Biometric
Most signatures in the broad electronic signature category or do not exclusively rely on
cryptographic methods. In jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Canada, electronic signature law
allows a wide variety of electronic signature types.
For example, if a government body or a private sector firm issues a customer an ID and password
that are to be used in an electronic transaction, and the resulting records of that transaction
could be signed and stored, then the affirmative act of completing the transaction using the
issued ID and password can be deemed sufficient verification of the customer's identity. When
this type of e-signature is used, it is highly recommended that some notice is displayed to the
user indicating that by clicking on an "Agree," "Save" or "Sign" prompt, the user is acknowledging
the transaction.
Additionally, the signer can be authenticated by requesting that he or she provide some
information based on knowledge that the signer and the recipient share. For example, the U.S.
Internal Revenue Service has successfully used a combination of a tax filer's self-selected PIN and
other data elements to verify the filer's identity.
This type of signature does not guarantee that tampering with the record, will not go undetected.
However, if strong user ID issuance procedures are followed, and administrative controls on the
records database and archival storage procedures are maintained, the government body or the
private sector firm may deem such an approach as "good enough."
Assessment on signatures
For many applications, the implementation of simple electronic signatures will be adequate. For
example, a user ID and password logon could be required to access a document that is classified
as non-confidential. The use of digital signatures based on PKC, while offering more attributes,
may not always be needed. In fact, many organizations choose electronic signatures not for
security but to reduce the paperwork and time that could be required for a conventional paper
transaction.
With PKI, it's virtually impossible for a person to forge a signature because of the public/private-
key relationship. Although the public key is distributed freely to anyone with whom the public-
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key owner wishes to communicate securely, successful fraud could also require access to the
private key. Because the private key cannot be derived from the public key, gaining access to the
private key could require social engineering (tricking someone who knows the key into revealing
it) or hacking (such as gaining access to the workstation that holds the private key) by
unauthorized persons inside or outside the company.
PKI-based digital signature techniques do cost more than simpler electronic signature methods.
The government’s and resident’s needs, not technology, could drive the choice as to which
method is "best" for a given transaction.
VI. Client Utility for ESignature
The resident starts the client utility on his/her computer and selects the document to be signed
in the application. Using the GoV-issued National Identity Data (NID) card in the ID card reader
attached to the computer, the resident signs the document selected. The application reads the
digital signing certificate from the ID card and creates a eSignature using the private key by
providing the PIN. After the eSignature is created, the validity of the signer’s certificate is obtained
in the format of Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) response and stored within the signed
document. The EISDF may provide the OCSP service to validate the eSignature. The client
application calls the OCSP web service hosted in the EISDP by providing the authentication
certificate of the resident, and the hash of the eSignature. The hash of the eSignature is received
back within the OCSP response. The OCSP service acts as the digital eNotary confirming
signatures created locally with a smart card.
The EISDF may also provide the option to sign the document using the Internet browser on their
computer by connecting to the EISDF public portal. Its functions are similar to the client program
and may be used to generate and verify the eSignature. In addition, it may be used to sign the
document by a number of people. It allows designating the people whose signatures are needed
on the document and they can all sign it on the same portal. Every user has a directory of his/her
documents which no one else sees, but where anyone can send documents to be signed by the
user.
The signed document includes within the container: the original documents, the certificate used
for signing, signing time, place of signature, signer role, and certificate validity information,
namely, OCSP response and OCSP responder certificate. There is no need for any further external
information to verify the signature validity.
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The service providers can include the functionality of the eSignature into their service delivery
applications using the base and intermediary libraries provided by the framework.
The framework enables long time validity of the eSignature by maintaining the log of the OCSP
responses and changes in the certificate validity.
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Annex 2: Demographic Data Matching Strategy and Rules
I. Name Matching Rules
Name Matching. For the name of the resident, there could be a support for “exact” and “partial”
matching strategies. When using “exact” matching strategy, the name is compared for an exact
match with the name stored in the CRIDS. Though comparison is case insensitive, all the words
of the name should be specified in the exact same order as provided by the resident. When using
“partial” matching strategy, the name is compared with that in the CRIDS based on the following
rules:
1. Words from the name can appear in any order in the “name” attribute. For example, if the
name is stored as “Pham Dang Nguyen”, then any of the inputs - “Nguyen Pham Dang”,
“Pham Nguyen Dang”, “Dang Pham Nguyen” or any other combinations – may result in a
successful match.
2. Usage of specific titles may be allowed in the “name” attribute. These are ignored for
matching purposes. Supported titles are “Mr.”, “Mrs.”, “Ms.”, and “Dr.”. No other titles are
currently supported. For example, if the name is stored as “Pham Nguyen”, then any of
the inputs – “Dr. Pham Nguyen”, “Ms. Pham Nguyen” or “Mrs. Pham Nguyen” - may result
in a successful match.
3. The following special characters, if present in the “name” attribute, are ignored during
matching:
a. Period (.)
b. Comma (,)
c. Hyphen (-)
d. Asterisk (*)
e. Open and close parentheses [ ( ) ]
f. Open and close brackets ( [ ] )
g. Apostrophe (`)
h. Single quote (’)
i. Double quote (”)
j. Forward slash (/)
k. Backward slash (\)
l. Hash (#)
m. Leading, trailing, and two or more contiguous spaces are removed before
matching. For example, if a resident’s name is stored as “Pham Nguyen”, then
“Nguyen, Pham” may result in a successful match.
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n. Input may not contain any additional words or initials that are not present in the
database. This may result in an unsuccessful match and authentication failure. For
example, if the name is stored as “Pham Nguyen”, then, “Pham Dang Nguyen” or
“Pham Dang” or “Pham D Nguyen” may result in unsuccessful matches as the words
“Dang” and “D” are not present in the CRIDS database.
o. When the threshold value for the partial match is other than 100 percent, then
inputs can have some words omitted, or initials can be used in place of the full
word. The match is considered successful as long as the input contains a minimum
number of matching full words as determined by the value of threshold value for
the partial match. For example, if the name is stored as “Pham Dang Nguyen”, and
the threshold value is specified as 60 percent. It means that 60 percent of total
words should match. In the case of “Pham Dang Nguyen”, 60 percent of three
words is 1.8 that is rounded up to two.
Thus, any of the following inputs may result in a successful match:
i. “Pham Nguyen” matches because it has the minimum two full words
ii. “Nguyen, Pham Dang” matches because it has the minimum two full words
in any order, and the comma (,) is ignored.
iii. “Pham D Nguyen” matches because it has the minimum two full words in
any order, and “D” is the initial of “Dang”.
The following inputs may result in an unsuccessful match:
i. “Pham” does not match because the number of words is less than the
specified minimum.
ii. “Pham D N” does not match since the initials are not counted as full words;
hence, the number of matching full words is less than the specified
minimum.
iii. “Pham S Nguyen” does not match because, while “Pham” and “Nguyen” are
matching full words, “S” does not match as the initial of “Dang”.
4. The matching strategy may support both languages, i.e., English and Vietnamese. The
name in Vietnamese may be a Unicode string and may use phonetic matching against
the data stored in the CRIDS.
II. Address Matching Rules
1. Address Matching. For the address of the resident, there could be support for both
“exact” and “partial” matching strategies. There is a “threshold value” defined for
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“partial” matching strategy that defines the percentage of full words from the address
stored in the CRIDS database that should be specified in the input data of the service
request for the match to be considered successful.
2. Normalization. The address value in the input data for the service request and the
residents’ address stored in CRIDS are both normalized using the following rules before
comparison. The following characters/phrases are ignored:
a. Period (.)
b. Comma (,)
c. Hyphen (-)
d. Asterisk (*)
e. Open and close parentheses [ ( ) ]
f. Open and close brackets ( [ ] )
g. Apostrophe (`)
h. Single quote (‘)
i. Double quote (“)
j. Forward slash (/)
k. Backward slash (\)
l. Hash (#)
m. Care of labels, such as “C/O”, “S/O”, “D/O”, “W/O”, “H/O”
n. “No.”
o. Leading and trailing spaces are trimmed and multiple consecutive spaces are
replaced with single space.
3. When using “exact” matching strategy, the normalized address attribute of the input
data is compared for an exact match with the normalized resident’s address.
4. When using “partial” matching strategy, the normalized address attribute is compared
for a partial match with the normalized resident’s address. Following are the rules of
partial match:
a. Words may appear in any order.
b. Following additional normalizations are applied to both the input data address
value and the address stored in CRIDS database:
c. Commonly used words are replaced with their shortened version:
i. “apartment” => “apt”
ii. “street” => “st”
iii. “road” => “rd”
iv. “main” => “mn”
v. “cross” => “crs”
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vi. “sector” => “sec”
vii. “opposite” => “opp”
viii. “market” => “mkt”
ix. Suffixes typically used with numbers such as “st”, “nd”, “rd”, and “th” are
removed. For example, 21st is converted to 21, 44th is converted to 44,
etc.
5. When used with threshold value other than 100, some of the words can be omitted in the
input. Match is considered successful if the minimum numbers of full words that should
match, as determined by the threshold value, are present in the input. Here is a scenario
where a partial matching strategy with 60 percent threshold value is applied to the
following value as resident’s address: c/o Pham Dung Nguyen, Apartment #12, Trong
Building, Chua Boc street, Quan Dong Da, Hanoi, Vietnam, 560055
a. This may be the normalized address: Pham dung nguyen apt 12 trong building
chua boc st quan dong da Hanoi vietnam 560055
b. These are examples of matching and their result:
i. “s/o Pham Dung Nguyen, Trong Building, apt #12, chua boc st, hanoi -
560055” may be normalized to “pham dung nguyen trong building apt 12
chua boc st hanoi 560055” – which results in a successful match as 12
words are matched (more than 11 words which is the rounded up 60
percent of the total, 17).
ii. “s/o Pham Dung Nguyen, Trong Building Hanoi 560055” may be
normalized to “pham dung nguyen trong building hanoi 560055” – which
results in an unsuccessful match since only 8 words are matched when a
minimum of 11, representing 60 percent, was requested.
6. The matching strategy for address may also support the address both in English and
Vietnamese, using the phonetic matching.
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Annex 3
I. Standard Address Structure Proposed
The fixed attributes of the standard address structure are defined below:
CO – “care of” person’s name
House – house identifier
Street – street name
Landmark – landmark, if any
LOC – locality where resident resides
VTC – name of the village, town or city
Commune – commune name
District – district name
Province – province name
PC – postal code
II. Encoded Usage Data
Hexadecimal digits within the “Encoded Usage Data” for the India Aadhaar system is interpreted
based on below rules.
1st hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3-0: Version number of encoding. It may be hexadecimal “1” (binary: 0001) for encoding
specified in this document.
2nd hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pi->name” attribute used?
Bit 2: Was “Pi->lname” attribute used?
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Bit 1: Was “Pi->gender” attribute used?
Bit 0: Was “Pi->dob” attribute used?
3rd hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pi->phone” attribute used?
Bit 2: Was “Pi->email” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “Pi->age” attribute used?
Bit 0: Was “Pa->co” attribute used?
4th hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pa->house” attribute used?
Bit 2: Was “Pa->street” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “Pa->lm” attribute used?
Bit 0: Was “Pa->loc” attribute used?
5th hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pa->vtc” attribute used
Bit 2: Was “Pa->dist” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “Pa->state” attribute used?
Bit 0: Was “Pa->pc” attribute used?
6th hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pfa->av” attribute used?
Bit 2: Was “Pfa->lav” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “FMR” used for biometric auth?
Bit 0: Was “FIR” used for biometric auth?
7th hexadecimal digit:
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Bit 3: Was “IIR” used for biometric auth?
Bit 2: Was “Pv->pin” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “Pv->otp” attribute used?
Bit 0: Was “Tkn” used?
8th hexadecimal digit:
Bit 3: Was “Pa->po” attribute used?
Bit 2: Was “Pa->subdist” attribute used?
Bit 1: Was “Pi->dobt” attribute used?
Bit 0: Unused
9th to 12th Hexadecimal digits:
Currently unused. May have value 0.
For example, if an authentication is done for Aadhaar number “123412341234” and using
demographic attributes “name”, “gender”, “date of birth”, “phone”, along with biometric FMR and
OTP;
YjRmYmJkMTZkZGQ4OGQxYTY5YjI0M2ZiYjU4YTFlNmQwMmQ1YTgyYjNmODU4YT
MzYzQyZmNhOWUxN2QwNGVhNGMyMzExZjUyYmY4NjA5ZDVkZDY4YWU2NWE4OTNjNTMwNTJi
M2U1YzQ5YTZkMGM2NzkyYTJlOGNhMTMxNDg0YWQ2MWM1ZGYzZGU0MTAzNExZWVlN2E0MjU
4ZjQ3ODg3NTU3ZWNmYzcwY2NkM2QwZmIzZjg5OTg3NjEzNzA3ZDliZjkyMWU3NTc3OGU2NGJk
MmM3MDhiNGQ4NDgyZGJmMGM3YjY3ZGZkZGZkNjIyNgwMTllNjhhMmI4MjQxZWY0MA==
then the value of the “info” attribute may be:
“0166c782e8f95ba958f28adaae576c42a263c2449af416fb844499bef7fd41b2d00212be474bf2
a6bfd4f361389ae66809babc144829129ae2315d6bab02045aa1B8002200000”
where:
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“01” – is the version of info structure
“66c782e8f95ba958f28adaae576c42a263c2449af416fb844499bef7fd41b2d0” – is the SHA-256
hash of Aadhaar Number
“0212be474bf2a6bfd4f361389ae66809babc144829129ae2315d6bab020455aa” – is the SHA-
256 hash of “Demo” element (as a String)
“1B8002200000” (binary bits “000110111000000000000010001000000000000000000000”) –
is the encoded usage data representing usage of name, gender, date of birth, phone, FMR, and
OTP portions within authentication request.
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Annex 4
I. Detailed Description of Technical Components of EISDP
Public Portal Features
1. Public Information and Mobile Services. The Electronic Identity Service Delivery Platform
(EISDP) could provide the common public portal for sharing all public information related
to Electronic Identity (eID) services accessible over the Internet. The portal could support
Internet browser on laptops, desktops and mobile devices. The portal could have
information that is publically available to all users, and some content could require
registration and authentication. The public portal could provide registration capabilities
for accessing the protected content on the portal. The portal could also provide
information related to the registration process for eIdentity Service Provider Agencies
(ISPAs) and eIdentity Service Consumer Agencies (ISCAs).
2. Developer Information and Services. The portal could also provide the content for software
developers to help them develop their EISDP eID services-enabled software applications.
The developers’ content could include technical user guides, sample codes, blogs,
discussion groups and a test environment for applications.
3. The portal could be hosted on the load-balanced web farm on virtualized web servers at
the centralized Electronic Identity Authority of Vietnam (EIDAV) data center. The portal
software could have content and user management capabilities and support multi-lingual
capabilities.
4. The development environment could include the installation of the eID services such as
authentication, electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) and mobile ID services as
stateless web services. The data could be hosted on active-active cluster-based database
servers with Storage Area Network (SAN).
5. The public portal and development environment could have failover support from a
disaster recovery system that is in a geographic location different from that of the data
center. The system could failover to the disaster recovery site in case of failures. The data
from the public portal and development environment database could be replicated in an
asynchronous mode to the backup site.
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IT Infrastructure (Hardware & Software)
The EISDP could be the common IT infrastructure and shared services for delivering Electronic
Identity Service Delivery Framework (EISDF) eID services. It may be hosted in the two tier 3 EIDAV
data centers in active-active mode. The detailed deployment architecture is described below.
Internet
Internet
ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data ISCA Data
Center Center Center Center Center Center Center Center
Internet/Intranet/ Internet/Intranet/
GPRS/Broadband GPRS/Broadband
ISPA Data Center ISPA Data Center
ISPA Data Center ISPA Data Center
Dedicated Dual Dedicated Dual
Redundant Private Redundant Private
Leased Line Leased Line
NIDAV Production Data Center NIDAV Disaster Recovery Data Center
(Active-Active Mode)
Web Farm Web Farm
Web Service Web Service
Gigabit Network Gigabit Network
Management Management
Server Server
Database Cluster Database Cluster
SAN Switches SAN Switches
Gigabit network
Gigabit network
CRIDS
Staging CRIDS Mirror Disk Storage
Database Disk Storage Staging
Database
Dedicated Dual Asynchronous
Redundant Private Replication
Leased Line
MPS Data Center Geographical Data backup Center
National ID
Database
Replication Offsite Disaster
Server Recovery Storage
Figure 8.1: EISDP Deployment Architecture
1. The EIDAV data centers – namely, production and disaster recovery − could be hosted in
the active-active mode with failover support for each other.
2. The data centers could be connected to each other using the fiber optic cable-based dual
redundant private leased line connectivity. The data centers do not have direct access to
the public network. It may only be accessed by the registered ISPA using the dual
redundant private leased line connectivity between ISPA and the two EIDAV data centers.
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3. The bandwidth requirements could be computed based on the expected volume of
transactions from ISCAs.
a. Approximately 5K average bandwidth is required for each Application
Programming Interface (API) call.
b. Handling about one million transactions per hour requires about 280 transactions
per second (tps) on average. Considering a 30-40 percent spike, bandwidth for
about 400 tps needs to be planned for. This turns out to be around 16 Mbps
(400*5K*8 bits/sec)
c. The ISPA may start with an 8 Mbps link and expand as the volume increases.
4. The eID services could generally be exposed as stateless web services. It could be hosted
on the virtualized web farm with clustered virtual web servers. It could run the hypervisor
with virtual machine manager software on a separate server. It could help to manage the
provisioning and de-provisioning of virtual machines on the servers. The server
hypervisor and virtual machine management software suite may be installed to manage
the overall physical and virtual IT infrastructure for the two data centers. It may also
implement the failover support using the migration of the virtual machines across the
physical servers and across the data centers.
5. The eID services business applications such as ISPA and ISCA registrations, management
and monitoring applications, reporting and Management Information System (MIS)
applications, analytics applications, intranet portal, and mailing solution could be hosted
on another virtualized web farm with clustered virtual web servers.
6. Both web farms could be hosted in a secure zone of the network infrastructure protected
by firewall, and the separate isolated network with the redundant switches to prevent any
malicious access outside of the private network.
7. The data could be stored on the servers and storage devices in the data zone that may be
separated from the secure zone using the firewall. The data storage system may include
the cluster-based database server with SAN storage connected to the database servers in
the active-active mode. The SAN storage may be connected to the database server using
the redundant storage switches over the one gigabit fiber optic cable. The storage capacity
of the SAN storage media may be based on the expected volume of transactions from
ISCAs.
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a. Approximately about 5KB of data is used for storage of one transaction.
b. For 10 million transactions per day, the SAN storage may require 50 GB of storage
size.
c. If online data storage of one month of is required, then 1.5 TB of online storage is
required on the SAN storage beyond which it could be moved to tape.
d. Approximately, the size of national ID data for one resident is 5 MB. This includes
the demographic and biometric data. The biometric data may include 10
fingerprints, photograph, and 2 iris scans. The total size needed to store data of
91 million residents of Vietnam growing at a rate of 10 percent could
approximately be 500 TB (100 million x 5 MB) by 2015.
e. The total SAN storage capacity for the ID data of all Vietnam residents and one
month of transaction data could be approximately 500 TB.
f. The total cost of the 15K RPM SAS disk could be USD 800,000 − based on the cost
of USD 1,600 per one TB.
8. The SAN traffic could use one Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) in the data zone for data transfers
between the web servers in the secure zone and database clusters within the data zone.
It could also be used for SAN traffic between the storage media and the database cluster
servers. The network architecture may include cabling, network cards, aggregation layer
switch, and Top-of-Rack (ToR) switches. The capital cost may include core networking
switches, cabling, network adapter card, aggregation layer switches and ToR switch costs.
The operational cost could include power usage and cooling, electronics and underlying
infrastructure updates, projected growth, management and risk factors costs.
9. The disaster recovery center could have the same configuration and capabilities as that of
the production data center and could operate in the active-active mode.
10. The EISDF could also provide a public portal that could be accessible over the Internet.
The public portal, apart from providing information-related Identity services to the
individual residents and organizations, could also provide information targeted at the
software developers who may want to design their own eID-based applications. The public
portal could also expose the development environment for testing applications. The
technical deployment architecture for the public portal and the development environment
is described below.
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Figure 8.2: Technical Deployment Architecture for the Development Environment and the Public
Portal
11. The public portal and the development environment could be hosted in EIDAV production
data center with failover support from the EIDAV disaster recovery center. They could have
a fault tolerance and load-balanced solution across both centers.
12. The public portal and development environment servers could be accessible over the
Internet and could be completely isolated from the servers and the network of the secure
and data zones in the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ). Their servers could be hosted on a
different segment of the network completely separated from the servers in the secure and
the data zones.
13. The public portal could be hosted on the virtualized web farm on virtual machines hosted
on two clustered physical web servers.
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14. The development environment could expose the identity functions as stateless web
services on the virtualized web farm on virtual machines hosted for clustered physical
web servers.
15. The management server could run the virtual machine manager software. It could help to
manage the provisioning and de-provisioning of the hypervisor and virtual machines on
the servers. The server hypervisor and virtual machine management software suite could
be installed to manage the overall physical and virtual IT infrastructure for the two data
centers. It could also implement the failover support using the migration of the virtual
machines across the physical servers and across the data centers.
16. Both web farms could be hosted in the DMZ and could be made accessible over the
Internet.
17. The development environment database and the documents in the content management
server may be hosted in the secure data zone separated from the DMZ by firewall.
18. The sample identity database for the development environment could be hosted on the
clustered server connected to the SAN using the latter’s dual switches over the fiber cable-
based Ethernet network.
19. The storage capacity of the SAN could be approximately 15 TB.
Physical Infrastructure
The EISDF could include the implementation of the physical infrastructure such as the data centers
at various locations based on the topology and implementation requirements for the EISDF. The
figure below describes the topology of the physical infrastructure to be established for the
implementation of the EISDF.
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Figure 8.3: EISDF Physical Infrastructure Topology
EIDAV Data Center Features
1. The EISDP could be hosted at the EIDAV data center. All EISDF identity functions could be
hosted at this data center and the services could be used by the mission-critical
applications of government and private sector organizations; therefore, this data center
could be designated critical infrastructure.
2. The data center could be designed as a tier 3 data center with 99.982 percent up time.
The design could include building architecture, facility topology, engineering
infrastructure and technology infrastructure. The facility topology could include space
planning. The engineering infrastructure could address mechanical systems involved in
the maintenance of the interior environment of a data center such as Heating, Ventilation,
and Air Conditioning (HVAC). It could also include electrical infrastructure such as utility
service, distribution, switching, and bypass from power sources, Uninterrupted Power
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Sources (UPS), etc. The electrical system design could adhere to the Power Usage
Effectiveness (PUE) requirements and energy standards.
3. The data center building could be constructed in an area of 1,000 square meters. The
building could have server room, central control room, network management center, UPS
distribution room, power distribution and management room, fire control room,
conference and display room, etc.
EIDAV Disaster Recovery Center Features
1. The disaster recovery center could be built in a different geographical location such as a
different city in a different seismic zone from the EIDAV data center. It could provide the
failover support for the identity services, applications and the IT infrastructure of the
EIDAV data center. It could work in the active-active mode and could host the identity
services and applications to provide load balancing and fault tolerance solution to the
EIDAV data center in case of failures.
2. The building size may be the same as the EIDAV data center’s 1,000 square meters. The
building specifications could also be the same with respect to mechanical, electrical and
telecommunication infrastructure designs.
3. The network between the two data centers could be the dual redundant private leased line
connectivity.
NID System Data Center Features
1. Thedata center could be the same as that which hosts the national identity database.
2. The National Identity Data (NID) could be used to populate the EIDAV database. The data
could be transferred using a highly secure database replication mechanism.
3. There could be a dual redundant dedicated private leased line setup between the NID
system's data center and the two EIDAV data centers.
Safety and Security System
The EISDP could provide the common security services that could be used by the services hosted
on the platform. They are discussed below.
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1. The end-to-end network security could be implemented using the standard network
practices such as usage of encrypted channel, usage of digital certificates, IP filtering,
authentication of systems and devices, network protection through firewalls and
Network-based Intrusion Prevention System (NIPS), auditing, etc.
2. Multiple levels of network security through the creation of DMZ, application and data
zones, and protecting all these zones using multiple firewalls, NIPS, and strong access
control and audit schemes.
3. The servers hosting the services could be exposed only to authorized service providers
through secure private connections using leased line to ensure multiple end-points exist
to provide service in an always-available mode.
4. The physical security infrastructure could have multiple levels of security system for
authorized personnel entry such as biometric-based access, among others.
Electronic Identity Authentication Service
The eID authentication may be done using demographic data and/or biometric data and/or One-
Time Password (OTP)/digital certificate. There could be several ways for residents to be
authenticated and they are discussed below.
1. The eID authentication functions may be exposed as stateless web service over Hyper-
text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). The use of open data format in Extensible Markup
Language (XML) and widely used protocol such as Hyper-text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
may enable easy adoption and deployment of eID authentication. The eID authentication
may be exposed as formatted Uniform Resource Locator (URL) with input data sent to this
URL as an XML document using content-type application/XML or text/XML. The
corresponding response from the service may also be in XML format.
2. The eID authentication functions could be exposed in the form of APIs that could be used
by the service providers to incorporate the eID authentication service types and features
in their service delivery application.
3. The EISDP could maintain an updated version of the residents’ eID information, i.e., the
National Identity Number (NIN) + demographic and biometric data, in the Centralized
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Resident Identity Data Store (CRIDS). The eID authentication services could be hosted on
the eID authentication server; and the CRIDS, on a separate database server. The two
servers could be hosted in the highly secure EIDAV data center.
4. In order to ensure a highly scalable and fault-tolerant solution that meets the response
time Service-level Agreements (SLAs), the eID authentication services and the CRIDS could
be hosted on load-balanced and cluster-based set of servers. The eID authentication
services, along with the CRIDS, could be hosted on a secure zone and exposed only to
authorized service providers through private connections using leased line to ensure
multiple end-points exist to provide service in an always-available mode.
5. To support a strong end-to-end security and avoid request tampering and man-in-the-
middle attacks, it is essential that data encryption take place at the time of data capture
from the device. For security reasons resident data collected for eID authentication may
not be stored in the devices or log files. It is also essential for ISCAs and ISPAs to maintain
audit records for all the authentication request metadata along with the response.
6. The eID database in the CRIDS may be populated and updated on a regular basis using a
centralized national-level identity creation process. Instead of recreating this process, the
EISDP could reuse the resident data collected by the GoV in issuing the National Identity
Data (NID) card and the NIN.
7. Given that the NID card and NIN is now being piloted by the MPS at the national level,
there could be a single process for identity creation and verification. Hence the problem
with multiple identities for the same resident could be solved. The NID card could be used
as the centrally issued national identity token to identify the resident uniquely, while the
NIN could be used as the unique identifier for the eID of the resident in the envisioned
EISDF.
8. The eID authentication function could take the NIN along with the eID-holder’s Personal
Identity Data (PID) as the input which in turn submits the data to the CRIDS for matching,
following which the CRIDS verifies the correctness of the data provided on the basis of the
match with the eID-holder’s identity information available with it. The service may
respond with a “yes/no” response to either confirm the proof of identity or verify the
information provided by the resident.
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9. In all forms of eID authentication, the NIN could be submitted along with the
single/multiple authentication factors so that the result is reduced to a 1:1 match.
10. The authentication function could search and select the residents’ information record in
the CRIDS using the NIN; thereafter the demographic/biometric inputs are matched
against the stored data that was provided by the resident during the enrollment/update
process.
11. The implementation of demographic authentication type may include the matching of the
following basic demographic attributes:
o Name in English and Vietnamese
o Address
o Gender
o Date of birth (full date or just the year)
o Age (verifying if a resident is above/below a given age)
o Phone (verified mobile number of the resident)
o Email (verified email address of the resident)
12. The demographic data matching features could be implemented based on the following
design.
o Name Matching. This may allow verification of the residents’ name against their
record stored in the CRIDS. The name-matching feature may implement various
strategies that could be an exact match or a partial match with configurable match
tolerance levels so that based on the application needs (i.e., having a strict match
against a slightly loose flexible match), different strategies can be used. For
example, while a bank application may choose a partial matching strategy, a
passport/visa application may choose an exact matching one since it requires a
resident’s actual full name (as found in the CRIDS). Another example: a resident
with NIN 123443211234 and whose name in the CRIDS is “Kim Pham Nguyen”
wants to open a bank account. The banking application does a demographic
authentication using the eKYC process where the application may choose not to
require an exact full name matching, but instead allows a partial name matching.
If the application uses partial matching strategy and prescribes a match value (or
threshold) of 50 − meaning 50 percent or more of full words match those in the
CRIDS – and the latter is obtained, then the customer account may be created. The
rules for name matching are described in detail in Annex 2.
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o Date of Birth Matching. This may allow complete date of birth or just the year.
o Age Matching. Some citizen benefits offered by the government may have age
requirements. This feature may compare the age of the individual stored in CRIDS
with the age provided at the time of service delivery.
o Mobile and Email Matching. This feature may compare the mobile number and
email address stored in the CRIDS with those provided by the individual at the time
of the service delivery.
o Address Matching. Some services such as banking, communication, and
government welfare in Vietnam depend on address verification to complete the
initial transaction and initiate the KYC process. Currently, verifications are done
through paper-based documents that are also the basis of transaction trail
preservation in the fulfillment of regulatory requirements. Address matching may
be done online by verifying the address against the CRIDS data. The common
address structure defined by EIDAV with the help of relevant ministries,
departments, and other agencies may be used for storing and matching urban and
rural addresses in electronic format. Address matching at this level may support
the following.
i. Structured address matching allows fields such as village/city, commune,
district, province, zip code, etc., to be matched individually or in
combination. This feature could enable address verification by the service
provider applications and could give the option to validate the address
using the eID standard address structure in full or in part. The proposed
standard address structure is defined in Annex 3. For example, while
issuing a SIM, the telecom operator application may capture the address
and simply verify the province and district or zip code to ensure that the
resident belongs to a particular telecom circle. To enter data in the
application faster, the NID card could contain a 2-D barcode or Quick
Response Code (QR code) written in XML format that can be read with a
standard web/mobile camera. Service provider applications are
encouraged to scan the 2-D barcode on the NID card so that the address
field is populated in a structured fashion. If an application does not scan
barcodes, but needs to have the address data manually entered from the
NID card as a single string, then the unstructured address-matching
scheme may be used. The detailed matching strategy for unstructured
address is defined in Annex 2. The structured address may contain the
following fields that can be verified individually or in combination:
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Fields that are free flow (as provided by the resident)
Care of person name
House identifier (single string containing house, apartment,
or building number, name, etc.)
Street Identifier (single string containing street number,
name)
Landmark details
Locality name and details
Fields that are based on codified master data
Village/town/city name
Region name
Province name
District name
Commune name
Zip code
Post office name
ii. Unstructured address matching is used when the service provider
application captures the address manually from the NID card or from the
information provided by the resident. This allows an address to be
captured as a single string and be matched against the address in the
CRIDS. Although this option is easy for verifying existing or manually
entered data, it requires matching without strict order and without all parts
of the full address being there. For this reason, eID authentication may
allow partial matching strategy during address matching and applications
may be allowed to choose the match tolerance level based on their needs.
In general, while structured matching provides greater accuracy, the
unstructured kind allows flexibility.
13. Biometric authentication could allow service provider applications to verify if the resident
is “who he/she claims to be”. Several applications require physical, in-person verification.
Biometric authentication could have the following features:
o Fingerprint matching. This may allow one of multiple fingers to be used for
matching depending on the needs of the application. Use of multiple fingers allows
better fusion strategy on the authentication server for greater accuracy.
Authentication using fingerprints could either be Fingerprint Minutiae Recognition
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(FMR) or Fingerprint Image Recognition (FIR). While applications for FMR could
operate on low bandwidth network, those for FIR could require higher bandwidth.
o Iris matching. In general, iris matching is more accurate than fingerprint matching.
Iris matching relies on Iris Image Recognition (IIR).
14. The biometric data captured as input data may comply with open standards. FMR could
comply with ISO 19794-2 finger minutiae format with no proprietary extensions allowed.
FIR could comply with ISO 19794-4 image format that could contain a compressed or
uncompressed image, of type PNG, WSQ, or jpeg2000. IIR could comply with ISO 19794-
6 image format that could be of type png, or jpeg2000.
15. In order to improve accuracy and reduce the number of matches, the authentication
request could contain the biometric “position hint” for each biometric template. Position
hint is used on the server to optimize the match. The valid position hint values are
LEFT_IRIS, RIGHT_IRIS, LEFT_INDEX, LEFT_LITTLE, LEFT_MIDDLE, LEFT_RING, LEFT_THUMB,
RIGHT_INDEX, RIGHT_LITTLE, RIGHT_MIDDLE, RIGHT_RING, and RIGHT_THUMB.
ISPA Data Center Features
1. The Identity Service Provider Agency (ISPA) may be a government or private sector entity.
The ISPAs offer their network connectivity to Identity Service Consumer Agencies (ISCAs)
and transmit latter’s identity service requests to the EISDP. Only agencies contracted with
the EISDF as ISPAs may send identity service requests to the EIDAV data center. The ISPA
registration process, as well as the detailed technical guidelines for setting up and
operating an ISPA date center, could be published on the EISDF public portal.
2. The ISPAs could setup dual redundant and dedicated private leased line connectivity
between its data center and the EIDAV data center. An ISPA data center could be a critical
infrastructure in the delivery of the identity services; hence, its design could include a
disaster recovery solution with a remote data backup support. The ISPAs could setup their
data center with the capability to extend assistance to the ISCAs. The technical
deployment architecture for that data center is described in Figure 8.4.
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Figure 8.4: Technical Deployment Architecture for ISPA Data Center
3. The bandwidth requirements for the ISPA data center may be computed based on the
expected volume of transactions from ISCAs. Approximately 5K bandwidth is required
for each API call. Further, handling about one million transactions per hour could require
280 Transactions Per Second (TPS) on average. Considering a 30-40 percent spike, the
bandwidth for about 400 TPS could have to be planned for. This turns out to be around
16 Mbps (400x5Kx8 bits/sec). Based on the above estimates, the ISPA could start with
an eight Mbps link and expand as volume increases.
4. An ISPA could provide a pair of routers to the EIDAV data center for terminating leased
line. Network devices such as routers and switches may be installed to enable connectivity
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between the ISCA and ISPA data centers. An ISPA could deploy at least two servers in the
active-active mode for hosting in its data center. The servers may be clustered and
virtualized with dual quad-core blade/rack servers with 64 GigaByte (GB) Random Access
Memory (RAM).
5. A firewall server could be deployed for securing the network between ISCA and ISPA, and
between ISPA and EIDAV. In addition to the firewall, an ISPA could deploy network
intrusion detection and prevention systems as well as anti-virus and anti-malware
systems to ensure protection against attacks.
6. To prevent single-point failure of the audit database, two database servers in high
availability active-active clustered mode could be deployed. The SAN storage may be
connected to the database servers using switches and a fiber optic-based network.
7. Six months of audit data could be maintained by the ISPA. Considering an audit data size
of 5K per transaction, ten million transactions per day could require the ISPA to have 50
GB a day, or 1.5 TB a month. Beyond one month, data could be moved to a backup
storage. In order to ensure high availability of the data, the audit transaction data could
also be backed up at a remote site using asynchronous replication.
8. The ISPA may setup separate servers: one for MIS reporting and billing, and another for
management and monitoring of the virtualization, network, servers, database, backup,
replication and applications. The server class operating system and the hypervisor could
be deployed on all physical servers in the data center.
9. The host Virtual Machine (VM) and guest VM could be set up using the VM Manager
deployment on the management server. The ISPA server software may be deployed on
the VMs. The database software could be installed on the database servers, while any
Enterprise Monitoring Software (EMS) could be deployed to effectively oversee the
production system.
ISCA Data Center Features
1. The Identity Service Consumer Agency may be a government or private sector entity that
registers with the EISDF to avail of services in the identification and authentication of its
clients. The ISCA identity service requests could be coursed through an ISPA, sole direct
channel to EIDAV.
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2. The ISCA registration process, as well as the detailed technical guidelines for setting up
and operating an ISCA data center, could be published on the EISDF public portal. The
ISCA could provide itself a disaster recovery solution with remote data back up support
as prescribed by the EISDF guidelines for ISCA data center.
3. The ISCA could set up network connectivity to be able to send request to and receive
response from its designated ISPA. It could be recommended that the ISCA have a private
leased line; however, it could be allowed to use existing broadband or GPRS Internet
connectivity.
4. The ISCA could develop its own service delivery application that could integrate the
identity service API calls. The technical guidelines provided by EISDF could be followed to
establish a secure and fail-proof delivery of services.
5. The ISCA could host its own web-based service delivery applications in their data center
and its client-based application on the PoS terminal that is integrated into the EISDF.
Requests could be sent from the PoS terminal to the ISCA data center that could then
forward them to the ISPA via a secure network.
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Figure 8.5: Technical Deployment Architecture for ISCA Data Center and PoS
6. Depending on business requirements, different identity services such eKYC, mobile ID,
etc., may be employed. The business establishment could use demographic, biometric, or
a combination of the two types of authentication.
7. The PoS software may be a centralized web-based or rich client-based application. The
PoS terminal could be equipped with EIDAV-compliant biometric devices for
fingerprinting, iris scanning, and facial photography. The data captured could then
conform to data standards as defined by EIDAV.
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8. The PoS application could package the demographic and biometric data following EIDAV’s
technical guidelines for eID authentication. The package could include data encryption
using symmetric key and, in addition, the private key of the ISCA as assigned by EIDAV.
The data packaged may be transmitted over the network between the PoS terminal and
the ISCA data center.
9. The ISCA data center could secure the incoming traffic from PoS terminals using firewall,
intrusion detection, anti-virus, and anti-malware systems. It may be hosted on a separate
server. It may also host the hardware security module for private key management.
10. The ISCA server application receives the incoming encrypted data, processes it and
forwards the validated data packages to the ISPA. The ISCA server application could be
hosted on the ISCA servers that are two virtualized and clustered servers in active-active
mode. The process of virtualization could be handled by the management server that is
hosted separately.
11. The MIS capabilities could be hosted in the ISCA data center for internal and external
reporting and data analysis.
12. Two database servers in high availability active-active clustered mode could be deployed
for the audit database to prevent single point of failure.
13. The SAN storage could be connected to the database servers using SAN switches and fiber
optic-based network. Six months’ worth of audit data could be maintained by the ISCA.
Considering 5K audit size per transaction and one million transactions per day, the ISPA
could require five GB of storage size daily. For one month, 150 GB of storage could be
needed; beyond one month, data could be moved to the backup storage.
14. The SAN storage data could be backed up in-site and off-site using asynchronous
replication.
15. Monitoring software to effectively oversee production system could be deployed. Any EMS
may be used.
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16. The ISCAs could be assigned a unique alphanumeric code by EIDAV at the time of the
registration to uniquely identify the ISCA. The ISCA could send its unique ISCA code as
part of service request input parameters to identify itself to EIDAV as the registered user
of the eID authentication service.
17. The ISCAs could automatically validate the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate and
ensure it is validated against the revocation list online.
18. The ISPA may host a server in its data center that could send the service request from the
ISCAs to the authentication server in EIDAV data center. The ISPA server could add one of
its valid license keys to the service request package from the ISCAs. The authentication
server may accept the request only from valid ISPAs and only from their registered static
IP addresses coming through a secure private network.
19. EIDAV could define a standard XML data format for inputting authentication service
requests. The format may enable the storing of both the demographic and biometric data.
The demographic data in the data fields could comply with the Know Your Residence (KYR)
specifications and could support data capture in both English and Vietnamese. The format
could support the provision for defining the language for the demographic data for the
service request.
20. The audit trail could be stored and maintained by ISCAs, ISPAs and EIDAV on their servers;
each service request and response in XML documents could be kept for a defined period
of time to allow for issue resolution, audits and business intelligence.
21. Since the technical architecture is based on stateless protocol, there could be a unique
Transaction Identifier (Transaction ID) attached to every service request and response in
order to track the proceedings in the full round trip across the various systems. It is highly
recommended that ISCAs use this attribute for correlating requests with responses for
auditing and verification.
22. License Key. Each ISCA could be assigned a valid license key by EIDAV that could be used
in the authentication process. The license key could be a unique alphanumeric string of
length up to 64 characters, and could have expiry built into it. The administration portal
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of EIDAV could provide a self-service mechanism for the ISCA administrator to generate
a new license key and renew before expiry.
23. Session Key. The session key is single-use symmetric key that may be employed for
encrypting all request and response messages in one communication session. The session
key, possibly a 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), could be generated by the
ISCA using encryption facilitated by the public key of EIDAV digital certificate or
biometrics. It is further encoded using the base-64 encoding to enable transmission over
the HTTPS. The encoded and encrypted session key may be added to the XML document
sent as the input data in the service request. The encryption of the key could ensure that
it is known only to the ISCA involved and EIDAV − and is not captured by the man-in-the-
middle attacks on the wire.
24. The PID captured on a device is encrypted on the capture device itself for security reasons.
The PID, which may include both binary biometric and demographic textual data, could
be further encoded to stream over the HTTPS protocol that is designed to deal with the
textual data. The authentication services may provide both options of encoding the binary
and textual data into either the base-64 encoding11 to transfer the binary data over media
that is designed to deal with textual data, or in binary format based on Protocol Buffers
standard12. The base-64 encoding of the PID and further packaging of the input data with
enveloping XML may be done on the device or the ISCA server depending on ISCA needs.
Device capability, protocol between devices and the ISCA server, and data format used
between devices and the ISCA server, etc., could be taken into consideration when making
the choice.
25. The authentication service design may be extensible and support different tokens such
as mobile phone, Near Field Communication (NFC) token, smart card, etc., today and in
the future. This may be useful in adding second factor authentication (“what resident has”)
for a self-service transaction by the resident. EIDAV could support the new national ID
card, mobile ID, registered mobile phone, and resident email ID as token types.
11 Base-64 encoding - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64
12 Protocol Buffers standard - http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/
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26. The ISCA could work with the Telco operator to obtain the mobile number of the mobile
device from which a service request is being made in order to ensure that the request is
originating from the registered mobile number of the resident.
27. Each authentication request may capture the token type and value of the token used for
initiating the service request.
28. Tampering of Personal Identity Data. In ensure that the PID is not tampered with during
transport from device to authentication server, the former may compute the SHA-256
hash of the PID XML string before sending. The hash value computed could be added to
the XML document that is sent as the input data to the service request. Also, when the
authentication server receives the request XML document, it may re-compute the hash of
the PID and compare it with the hash value received in the service request. If the values
do not match, it rejects the authentication request with an error code stating the PID has
been tampered with.
29. Ensure message integrity and prevent non-repudiation. ESignature could be used to
ensure integrity of the message during transmission and prevent non-repudiation of the
source of the service request. The service request XML document may be digitally signed
using the XML eSignature of the ISCA or ISPA, depending on which agency creates the final
request XML document. By signing the XML document, it is certified that the message
security and integrity between servers are intact and that the request was indeed sent by
the signer.
30. The eSignature could be procured by the ISCA and the ISPA from the valid certification
authority as per the ESignature Act13. The eSignature may be a class II or class III
certificate. The digital certificate may include two parts: X.509 certificate representing the
public key, and the private key that is used for digital signing. The private key could be
stored securely and the certificate owner could have the responsibility of ensuring that it
is not compromised. The EIDAV authentication server could check to ensure that the
certificate belongs to the ISCA or the ISPA and that it had been issued by the valid
certification authority. Hence, it is mandatory that “O” attribute of “Subject” in the X.509
certificate does match the name of the agency.
13 ESignature Act - http://www.moj.gov.vn/vbpq/en/Lists/Vn%20bn%20php%20lut/View_Detail.aspx?ItemID=4172
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31. There could be a capability to timestamp the capture of authentication input on a device.
The format of the timestamp could be “YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss” and may be derived
from the ISO 8601. Time zone may not be specified and is automatically defaulted to ICT
(UTC +7.00). The timestamp plays a critical role; hence, it is recommended that devices
are time-synchronized with a time server.
32. The ISCA and ISPA servers could support buffering of authentication requests and could
send requests to the authentication server to support occasional lack of network
connectivity on the field. The maximum time that requests may be buffered (queued)
could be defined by the National IT Security and the National Identity Service Delivery
Framework (NISDF) IT Operation policy. All requests with timestamp value older than the
prescribed limit could be rejected.
33. As per EIDAV’s security policy, if the number of failed attempts crosses the upper limit,
the resident record in the CRIDS may be put on hold. The upper limit may be dynamically
computed based on various heuristics and it may not be a static number.
34. The response from authentication service is an XML document. For privacy reasons, it
does not return any personal data of the resident and responds only with “yes/no”.
35. The authentication service could provide a mechanism to validate the authenticity of the
response for non-repudiation purposes. In order to enable verification and audit, the
authentication response could be digitally signed by EIDAV and the signature could be
part of the response. The signature could be verified using the EIDAV public key and the
signature could comply with the W3C XML signature standard14. The ISCAs could preserve
the authentication response for each request that originates from their server for non-
repudiation purposes.
36. The authentication response could provide a mechanism to co-relate the response with
the request by passing the same transaction identifier that came with the request back in
the response. It could also include the timestamp when the response is generated.
14 W3C XML Signature standard - http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/
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37. In order to enable a mechanism wherein the authentication response could be used as the
digital Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address (PoA) at a later time, the response could
add the meta information to the PID details included in authentication request. This could
include the SHA-256 hash value of the NIN, the SHA-256 hash value of the demographic
part of the PID block and the encoded usage data in HEX format of the various
demographic attributes usage of this authentication request. The design of the encoded
usage data for India Aadhaar system is described in Annex 5.
38. The eID authentication service may be originated from either a “registered” or a “public”
terminal device. The public devices are those without a secure container to store the keys.
The connectivity between the public devices and the authenticator could use a secure
protocol such as HTTPS.
39. For public devices, data could be encrypted with a dynamic session key using AES-256
symmetric algorithm (AES/ECB/PKCS7Padding). The session key, in turn, could be
encrypted with 2048-bit EIDAV public key using asymmetric algorithm
(RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding). The session key may not be stored anywhere, except in
memory, and it may not be reused across transactions. When using public devices, it is
highly recommended that an OTP be used.
40. The steps for packaging and encrypting the service request on the “public” device are:
a. The NIN, demographic and biometric details as required by the application
are entered into the device along with other factors such as OTP, if it is used. If
OTP is used, the request for it is sent to the eID authentication server along with
the NIN. The eID authentication server sends the OTP back to the resident’s
registered mobile phone as a Short Message Service (SMS) and to the registered
email address.
b. The ISCA/Sub-ISCA application generates a one-time session key.
c. The authentication “data” XML block could be encrypted using the one-time
session key and then encoded (base 64).
d. The session key could then be encrypted with the EIDAV public key.
e. The ISCA application on the device could send the encrypted block along with
Hash-based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) data to the ISCA server.
f. The ISCA server could form the final authentication XML input for service request,
including license key and transaction reference (txn attribute), and send the data
to the eID authentication server through an ISPA network.
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g. The eID authentication server decrypts the session key with the EIDAV private key.
The data block is then decrypted using the session key.
h. The resident’s decrypted biometric and demographic information − and optional
OTP − are taken into account during the matching process based on the input.
i. The eID authentication server responds with “yes/no” in the digitally signed XML.
41. Authentication Audits. The eID authentication could record all the authentication requests
and their responses for audit purposes. By providing the NIN and the authentication
response code, the ISCA could request EIDAV to confirm the result of an authentication,
along with the authentication factors that were presented in that request. National IT
Security and EISDF IT Operation policy could determine how long these audits could be
maintained.
42. All authentication responses could be digitally signed by EIDAV and the ISCAs could be
advised to validate the response integrity and may keep track of these for audit purposes.
In addition, attributes such as timestamp and demographic usage data within the
authentication response may be used to verify if the request was indeed for a particular
NIN, if the request indeed had a biometric factor, or when the authentication was done,
etc. Such self-verifiability of the authentication response may allow third party
applications to trust and electronically verify the digitally signed response quite similar to
that of an offline trust establishment honoring a notarized document.
43. In order to ensure that the solution is widely adopted and is interoperable with the existing
systems, it is recommended that technologies that comply with open standards be used.
Some of the open standards that may be look into are:
a. Demographic data standards. There could be a standard for capturing necessary
demographic data of the resident so that this identity information works across
various systems and ensures interoperability across various government and
private agencies that use the EISDF. It is important that the capture and verification
of basic demographic data for each resident is standardized across all partners of
the EISDF. For instance, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) set up
the Demographic Data Standards and Verification Procedure (DDSVP) committee15
for this purpose.
15 Demographic Data Standards and Verification procedure (DDSVP) committee -
http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Committees/UID_DDSVP_Committee_Report_v1.0.pdf
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b. Biometric standards. EIDAV could set up a committee for defining the biometric
standards based on the national and international standards; it could also define
best practices, expected accuracy, interoperability, conformity, and performance
in biometric standards. For instance, the UIDAI set up a committee for biometric
standards16.
c. eID Biometric APIs17
d. Data Encryption Algorithm - ANXI X3.92
e. Banking—Retail Financial Services Symmetric Key Management - ANSI X9.24
f. Public Key Cryptography for the Financial Service Industry: Agreement of
Symmetric Keys Using Discrete Cryptography - ANSI X9.42
g. Triple Data Encryption Algorithm: Modes of Operation – ANSI X9.52
h. Security Requirements for Cryptographic Modules - FIPS PUB 140-2
i. Personal Identification Number (PIN) Management and Security - ISO 9564
j. Information Technology – Security Techniques – Hash Functions - ISO 10118
k. Information Technology – Security Techniques – Key Management – ISO 11770
l. Information Technology – Security Techniques – Encryption Algorithms – ISO
18033
m. Biometric Standards - ISO 19794-4, ISO 19794-6
n. Date and Time Format Standard – ISO 8601
o. XML Signature - http://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/
p. Metadata and Data Standards for Person and Land Region Codification – e.g.,
eGovernance standards18 defined by the Government of India.
q. Protocol Buffers - http://code.google.com/p/protobuf/
r. Geolocation Standard – ISO 6709
Mobile ID Service Features
1. Assuming the use of a physical card for the SIM, the card to be used for mobile ID service
should be produced in a secure environment and could comply with the protection profile
defined by the European Committee for Standardization Workshop Agreement (CWA)
16 Biometric standards - http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Committees/Biometrics_Standards_Committee_report.pdf
17 eID Biometric APIs - http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Working_Papers/Aadhaar_ABIS_API.pdf
18Metadata and data standards - http://egovstandards.gov.in/standardsandFramework/metadata-and-data-
standards/MDDS_Standard_release_version_1.0__Dec_24_2k9.pdf
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14169 with Evaluation Assurance Level 4+ (EAL4+) according to Common Criteria (CC)
security standard (ISO/IEC15048). The SIM vendor should provide the certificate upon
request from the Certification Authority (CA) for a particular SIM product.
2. The SIM could have the Secure-Signature-Creation Device (SSCD) module with two key
pairs: one for authentication, the other for signing/non-repudiation purposes. The
signing key may be protected by a PIN.
3. The application that may be stored on the SIM is the Over-The-Air (OTA) SMS interface
for authentication transaction, eSignature transaction, changing of PINs, unblocking
private keys with PIN Unlock Key (PUK) code, decryption of encrypted data, and decryption
and display of text message.
4. The mobile phone could support at least Phase 2+ SIM Toolkit.
5. The estimated cost of the production of SIM with Wireless Public Key Infrastructure (wPKI)
capabilities may be USD 1-2 with digital certificates or biometrics, and application loaded
on the SSCD area.
6. EIDAV may have to provide the standard technical specifications for the wPKI-enabled SIM
for mobile ID services and supported mobile phones.
7. SIM Provisioning Design
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Figure 8.6: SIM Provisioning Technical Architecture
a. The EIDAV portal could provide the registration applications for entities that could
be involved in mobile ID services as Registration Authority (RA), Trusted Service
Provider (TSP), ISCA, ISPA and CA.
b. The RA could set up outlets for SIM provisioning, user registration and certificate
activation.
c. The RA could host the application for resident identity validation on the servers in
its data center and provide access to the Internet at the outlets for performing
identity validation of the resident at the time of SIM provisioning. The identity
validation application may have the same technical architecture as the ISCA
application that could call the identity authentication service provided by EISDF for
biometric authentication. The outlets could install biometric readers with the
application for identity verification of the resident.
d. The RA may also host the web application for activating the device certificate of a
SIM and circulating it to TSPs. EIDAV may host a web service in its production data
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center for the purpose of disseminating device certification activation details to
TSPs. The RA outlets could call this application over the Internet.
8. User Registration/Certificate Activation Design
Figure 8.7: User Registration/Certificate Activation Technical Architecture
a. The user initiates the SIM activation application on the mobile phone. The
application sends the activation request over the wireless Global System for Mobile
communication (GSM) network to the Short Message Service Center (SMSC)/SMS
gateway hosted in the RA data center. The SMSC forwards the request to the SIM
activation application hosted in the back-end servers in the data center.
b. In response, the application sends the request for signature on the personal
identity data via the OTA and the SMS gateways. The resident verifies the data and
signs it by inputting the device certificate activation code.
c. The RA receives the signed personal data and includes other information such as
the device certificate; it then forwards the request for certificate activation to the
designated CA over a secure Internet connection. The RA also sends the service
request to EIDAV via a registered ISPA to update the resident’s identity record with
the mobile number.
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d. The CA creates and activates a qualified certificate and publishes it to inform TSPs
and EIDAV.
9. Usage Design
Figure 8.8: Mobile ID Usage Technical Architecture
a. The service provider integrates the service delivery application into the mobile ID
service and hosts it on the ISCA data center. The service delivery application has
the option to click the “Log in with mobile ID”.
b. The ISCA system calls the EISDF mobile ID web service hosted on the EIDAV data
center with the NIN, mobile number and PIN of the resident via the ISPA.
c. The EIDAV mobile ID web service validates the mobile number provided using the
stored mobile number for the given NIN in the CRIDS.
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d. After successful validation, it calls the TSP web service hosted in the TSP data
center over the secure Internet connection with the mobile number, verification
code and the PIN.
e. In response, the TSP service generates the verification code and sends it to the
ISCA website. It also generates the signature request with the verification code,
mobile number and PIN; then it sends it to the resident’s mobile phone using the
OTA and SMS gateways of the TSP over the wireless network in SMS format.
f. The specialized OTA SMS activates the identity verification application on the SIM
card. It displays the verification code that is the same as that displayed on the
computer of the resident. The resident validates the verification code displayed on
the mobile device with the one displayed on the computer and signs the request
by entering the PIN.
g. The TSP receives the signature data and calls the Online Certificate Status Protocol
(OCSP) service of the CA to validate the signature data and the certificate.
h. The TSP forwards the response received from the CA to the ISCA via EIDAV and the
ISPA.
i. On successful authentication, the resident logs into the secure website.
10. Termination Procedure
a. In cases of certificate revocation, the RA informs the CA of certificate revocation
and the CA immediately revokes the certificate and publishes the updated
Certificate Revocation List (CRL) for the benefit of the TSPs. It also alerts EIDAV via
the ISPA to update the identity record in the CRIDS and deactivate the mobile ID
service for the resident along with the reason.
b. In cases of SIM blocking due to loss or SIM damage, the device certificate is taken
out of the list of valid SSCDs available to TSPs. EIDAV is alerted via the ISPA to
update the identity record in the CRIDS and deactivate the mobile ID service for
the resident along with the reason.
Electronic Identity Seeding Service
Seeding Utility could be a desktop program available for download from EIDAV’s public portal
after successful registration.
1. The ISCA downloads the utility from the portal and installs it on its server as the
executable.
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2. The utility provides the capability for data extraction, consolidation, normalization and
matching. The utility connects to different data sources to pull the relevant PID from
reference databases. It also pulls the data from the relevant data tables in the service
delivery database of the service provider.
3. The utility provides the capability in which one or more PID equivalent fields (name, fate
of birth, age, gender) from resident records in the service delivery database may be
matched with equivalent fields in PID records from the reference database. The mapping
thus created may be exported to Excel for further review and approval by a competent
authority appointed by the service provider. The utility’s match-and-seed functionality is
limited only to the creation of the mapping and its export. Based on mapped data, the
service provider may create custom Structured Query Language (SQL) scripts to update
the service delivery database.
4. The utility also enables the validation of the seeding by performing
demographic/biometric authentication using the eID authentication service. The ISCA
registers with EIDAV to call eID authentication service.
Prerequisites to eID Seeding
The eID seeding process is necessarily preceded by data digitization and centralization.
Data digitization essentially means collation of service delivery data in an electronic format
(database/Excel or similar) from where data can be retrieved using standard SQL queries from a
Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) − the latter may be MySQL, SQL Server, Oracle,
Sybase, DB2 or similar. It is also important that the personal identity data slowly become
consistent across multiple systems. The EISDF is also an initiative to standardize personal identity
information, and the eID data may be used to clean the existing data.
Data centralization primarily manages availability and accessibility of distributed service delivery
data. The objective here is to allow the seeding utility to access the service delivery data and all
related information in at least the read-only mode. For example, in Vietnam pensioners’ data
may be made available in data silos across districts. A consolidated view of the entire data may
allow the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) to improve its service delivery while at the same time
eliminate the problem of having one person avail of the same benefit from two different districts.
eID Seeding Strategies
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The EISDF may support two ways of seeding the service delivery database with the eID/NIN: the
top-down method and the organic method.
Top-Down method may use as input the resident PID captured at the time of enrollment for
generating the NID and NID card, and the national population database available with GoV. In this
method, the PID fields in the reference database created using the NID database are compared
with the equivalent fields in the service delivery database in order to find a suitable match. Upon
finding a match, the NIN from the reference database is seeded into the service delivery database
of the service provider. Depending on the resident PID fields captured at the time of the
enrollment in the NID system, the EISDF may support two possible scenarios for unique matching
of resident record. Consider the example where the health insurance card number was captured
in the resident data fields at the time of the enrolment in the NID system. The field health
insurance card number, along with the resident’s name, may then be used to find a matching
unique record in the health insurance database maintained by the VSS.
Service Delivery Database
Health
Insurance Province
NIN Name DoB Applicant No Bank Code Bank Name
Card Code
Number
1234523 Viet Huong Thảo 16‐ Aug‐ 78 234 … … …
4453898 Hau Hung Vuong 12‐ Sep‐ 76 234 … … …
2545322 Trang Nguyen 2‐ Jan‐ 65 234 … … …
4352893 Nam Luong 4‐ Feb‐ 68 234 … … …
5423492 Hieu Duong 23‐ Apr‐ 75 234 …
7354858 Hoang Tr ần 13‐ May‐ 56 234 … … ..
Health
NIN Name Age DoB Address Insurance Card
Number
345674565234 Viet Huong Thảo 22 16‐ Aug‐ 78 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 1234523
345676565678 Hau Hung Vuong 24 12‐ Sep‐ 76 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 4453898
245678565123 Trang Nguyen 45 2‐ Jan‐ 65 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 2545322
123674565234 Nam Luong 35 4‐ Feb‐ 68 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 4352893
439667365834 Hieu Duong 38 23‐ Apr‐ 75 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 5423492
534457456503 Hoang Tr ần 32 13‐ May‐ 56 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 7354858
NID Card Enrollment Database
Another scenario could be a case where there are no extra fields captured during the enrollment
for the NID card. In such a case, one or more PID fields may be used for matching. Consider the
example of the service delivery database of the telecom provider with customer ID.
Service Delivery Database
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NIN Name Age DoB Address Mobile No
345674565234 Viet Huong Thả o 22 16‐ Aug‐ 78 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 4 39346600
345676565678 Hau Hung Vuong 24 12‐ Sep‐ 76 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 4 39346719
245678565123 Trang Nguyen 45 2‐ Jan‐ 65 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 4 39312330
123674565234 Nam Luong 35 4‐ Feb‐ 68 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 3 23446600
439667365834 Hieu Duong 38 23‐ Apr‐ 75 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 4 39344321
534457456503 Hoang Tr ần 32 13‐ May‐ 56 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐ 4 39231344
Customer No NIN Name DoB Address Mobile No Email Plan Name
12434 Viet Huong Thảo 16‐Aug‐78 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐4 39346600 … …
12342 Hau Hung Vuong 12‐Sep‐76 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐4 39346719 … …
23453 Trang Nguyen 2‐ Jan‐65 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐4 39312330 tra… XYZ
22342 Nam Luong 4‐Feb‐68 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐3 23446600 …. …
34567 Hieu Duong 23‐Apr‐75 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐4 39344321 … …
23123 Hoang Trần 13‐May‐56 63 Ly Thai To, Hanoi, Vietnam 84‐4 39231344 … …
Customer Table of Telecom Company’s Database
As shown above, the PID fields (name, date of birth, address) from the NID enrollment database
are matched with the PID equivalent field in the service delivery table and − based on match
percentage of individual fields − an overall match score is calculated. It may be ideal to have a
100 percent match for seeding to take place, but that may happen rarely; therefore, it may be
assumed that if the match score exceeds a predefined threshold (possibly 80 percent) then a
match may take place.
The capture of additional information during NID enrollment could make seeding simple; it could
be used for matching records between the PID and the service delivery tables whose unique
identifier has been captured previously. The presence of a health insurance card number, an
employment card number, or any other unique identifiers could prove beneficial to finding a
match.
Organic method may require the service provider to contact the resident, or vice-versa, to update
the NIN/eID in the service delivery database. It may involve creation of touchpoints where the
resident voluntarily, or in response to service providers’ call, initiates inclusion of his/her NIN/eID
in the service delivery databases. This approach can be implemented in interactive or batch
modes.
In the interactive mode, the resident may approach the service provider for the following reasons:
1. To avail of department-specific benefits scheme and/or services. The touchpoints could
be in the field or in the service provider offices.
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2. In response to a campaign by the service provider for NIN/eID registration to serve specific
benefits and services.
3. The resident voluntarily approaches the service provider to register the NIN/eID for a
specific service.
In the batch mode, the service provider gives the list of data pair (eID/NIN, KYR+) to be processed.
The service provider could launch a new scheme where offline data entry is done with an
application form submitted by the resident; it could also use the existing scheme for new
enrollees.
The departments may leverage one or more channels of communication with the residents in
order to capture their NIN/eID. Some of the channels that may be used are:
1. Document Collection at Touchpoints. Residents may hand over copies of their NID card
and registration form with the service provider (e.g., for health insurance card). The
service provider later updates the service delivery database based on the information
supplied.
2. SMS. The service provider enables an SMS-based application. Residents are expected to
send an SMS containing the NIN and a registration number to the service provider. For
example: UPD is sent to a number 59999
(illustrative only). The application at the back-end seeds the NIN into the database by
using the health insurance card number as key. For the verification of information
supplied, the service provider needs to conduct a demographic authentication after
seeding.
3. Operator-assisted Update at Touchpoints. The service provider enables direct seeding of
the NIN/eID at resident touchpoints where residents are expected to come along with
supporting documents such as the NID card and a service registration document. A
resident is authenticated both demographically and biometrically before the NIN is seeded
in the service delivery database.
4. Email. Similar to the SMS-based approach, an email is sent in a pre-defined format along
with scanned copies of supporting documents as attachments. Upon receiving the email,
the back-end application extracts the required information from the email and seeds the
database appropriately. In case of failure, the resident is informed by a reply email.
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5. Post/Courier. This is similar to the previously mentioned document collection approach;
however, in this case document collection takes place through the post/courier.
6. Interactive Voice Response. A telephone-based Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
application captures the NIN and registration number in an interactive manner. Upon
capturing the required information, the back-end application seeds service delivery
database appropriately. Demographic authentication may be conducted after seeding for
verification.
7. Self-service Web Portal. The service provider may open up a web portal for residents to
update their beneficiary identifier number or account number, along with the NIN. Service
providers may do a demographic authentication at the back-end before updating their
database with the NIN/eID.
Common Seeding Challenges and Solutions
The eID Seeding services may be designed to address some of the common challenges during
seeding. Below are some of the common challenges for which necessary processes or
workarounds may be designed to overcome them.
1. Complete data is not captured in service delivery databases. Data are often entered
manually by semi-skilled operators resulting in incomplete and incorrect entries in the
service delivery database. Lack of an adequate Quality Assurance (QA) process by service
providers also contributes to the problem. A data digitization strategy may address this
potential issue.
2. Similar information across different data sources do not have exact match between them.
It has been observed the same data across different tables are not entered similarly. Take
the case of names “Hau Hung Vuong” and “H H Vuong” which refer to same person.
Seeding may support exact/partial match of various data fields; therefore, such issues
may be handled during data cleansing and normalization.
3. Data in service delivery database is in Vietnamese. Matching of data in the same language
can be done with standard comparison algorithms, but if the information in the database
is in different languages (e.g., English and Vietnamese) there is no way a match can be
made. If a match could made, then the algorithms need to be made extremely intelligent
and complex unless data level changes are made in the database.
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4. All the required data is not available. Careful planning and coordination with support
groups need to be done. As an example, codec information for encoding and decoding
may be made available in cases where only codes are stored (often in the gender field,
male is stored as 1 while female is 2).
5. Normally available tools become incapable to handle high volume of data. Normally
people prefer using Microsoft Excel for data handling. However, it has been observed that
after a few thousand records are entered into an Excel sheet, the response time of the
tool deteriorates significantly. In such cases, alternative database tools may be
considered; e.g., import data into a database (MySQL, MS SQL Server, Oracle, etc.).
6. Mobilization of residents. In the case of organic seeding, the mobilization of residents is
required in order to complete seeding. A multi-channel organic seeding approach needs
to be employed for effective mobilization.
II. Organizational Structure: Roles and Responsibilities
Electronic Identity Authentication Service
Responsibilities of the Electronic ID Authority of Vietnam
1. EIDAV could implement a mechanism to get the latest update on the PID of residents from
the NID system of the NID system on a regular basis.
2. EIDAV could provide EISDF identity services such as authentication to ISCAs that wish to
use them for establishing the identity of eID-/NID-holders before conducting business
with the latter.
3. EIDAV could determine the operating and engagement model for EISDF identity services.
4. EIDAV could determine the rules regarding the use of eID, NIN and EISDF identity services.
5. EIDAV could determine the eligibility criteria for Managed Identification Service Providers
(MISPs), facilitate the application and registration process and enter into contract with
them.
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6. EIDAV could determine the eligibility criteria for ISPAs, facilitate the application and
registration process and enter into contract with them.
7. EIDAV could determine the eligibility criteria for ISCAs, facilitate the application and
registration process and enter into contract with them.
8. EIDAV could determine standards and specifications that could be adhered to by all those
participating in the EISDF identity services ecosystem − including ISPAs, ISCAs and sub-
ISCAs. The standards and specifications could include systems and processes, and
specifications pertaining to API, infrastructure (including devices), process, technology,
certification (if applicable), audit, security and SLAs (if applicable). In summary, EIDAV
could determine minimum standards and specifications for EISDF identity services, while
ecosystem partners could extend and add more specifications and standards to meet their
domain and application needs.
9. EIDAV could publish documents on its website giving the standards and specifications it
prescribes. EIDAV could choose to certify all applications that could be used by ISCAs (and
sub-ISCAs) to enable their eID authentication operations. This could include:
a. Certification (by itself or through approved independent agencies) of applications
(such as those driving the authentication process in the ISCA systems) that may be
used by ISCAs and other participants in eID authentication.
b. Certification of fingerprint and iris sensors, and extractor pairs that could be
incorporated in authentication devices. It is the responsibility of vendors of
relevant equipment to get their products certified by the Standardization Testing
and Quality Certification (STQC) department of the Ministry of Information
Technology (MIT).
10. EIDAV could reserve the right to conduct audits of all key players in the EISDF identity
services ecosystem including ISPAs and ISCAs − either by itself or through EIDAV-
appointed/approved independent audit agencies − to examine compliance with
prescribed standards and specifications. As part of these audits, EIDAV/audit agency
could inspect the premises, operations and systems, infrastructure, security, etc., of the
entity being audited.
11. EIDAV could retain the right to take appropriate action against parties not complying with
its specifications, including disqualifying them from using EISDF identity services system
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or terminating their contract after an appropriate grace period for remedial action as
specified in the respective contracts.
12. EIDAV could provide a framework for the dispute resolution mechanism of the EISDF
identity services ecosystem.
13. In the future, if any charges are associated with EISDF identity services, EIDAV could decide
on the charges or establish the framework for determining charges.
14. EIDAV could play any role, when necessary, to ensure that the system continues to offer
uninterrupted services and run successfully.
Responsibilities of a Managed Identification Service Provider
The MISP’s main area of responsibility includes EISDF Identity transaction operations (i.e., receive
authentication requests, execute a match of PID received with the identity information on the
CRIDS, and transmit the result) involving networks, data centers, availability of identity service,
SLAs with ISCAs (if any) and monitoring of operations and performance metrics.
Responsibilities of an Identity Service Provide Agency
1. The ISPA adheres to its contract with EIDAV by complying with EIDAV standards and
specifications, including the SLA if relevant.
2. The ISPA ensures that all its infrastructure and operations − including systems, processes,
IT and biometric infrastructure, security, etc. − are compliant with EIDAV standards and
specifications.
3. When the ISPA receives a service request such as authentication from an ISCA, it is
recommended that the ISPA perform basic checks on the service request input before
forwarding it to the EISDP server. The request is forwarded to the authentication server
only if it is compliant and complete. Otherwise, it is returned to the ISCA with appropriate
error message (which then forwards it to the authentication device with necessary
instructions).
4. On receiving the response from the authentication server, the ISPA transmits the result of
the transaction to the ISCA that placed the request.
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5. It is highly recommended that the ISPA maintain a log of all identity transactions it
processes. The log could be retained for a specified duration determined by EIDAV and
may be shared with other entities, but only on a need-basis. The log may capture
transaction details such as NIN, requesting ISCA, timestamp, etc., but not PID associated
with an authentication transaction. The storage of the transaction log could comply with
the applicable laws of the country.
6. In conducting its operations, the ISPA complies with all applicable laws and regulations in
the country in the area of data security and management.
7. The ISPA ensures that its identity service systems are audited by an information systems
auditor certified by a recognized body before commencing of its operations. The ISPA may
provide a certified audit report to EIDAV from time to time confirming its compliance with
prescribed standards, directions, specifications, etc.
8. The ISPA ensures that its operations and systems related to identity services are audited
by an information systems auditor certified by a recognized body on an annual basis. The
ISPA may provide a certified audit report to EIDAV from time to time confirming its
compliance with prescribed standards, directions, specifications, etc. In addition, EIDAV
may reserve the right to audit the ISPA (by itself or through EIDAV-appointed/approved
agencies). During such audits, the ISPA cooperates fully with EIDAV/audit agency and
provides access to its premises, procedures, records, systems, personnel and any other
relevant part of its authentication operations. In case of non-compliance, EIDAV may take
appropriate action such as termination of contract after an appropriate grace period for
remedial action. The cost of the audits may be borne by the ISPA.
9. The ISPA keeps EIDAV informed of the list of ISCAs it serves. On entering into contract
with a new ISCA, the ISPA informs EIDAV (along with details sought by EIDAV) before
commencing service to the ISCA. Similarly, when an ISPA disengages with an ISCA, the
ISPA informs EIDAV within seven days of the disengagement.
10. The ISPA may have a contract with the ISCA to provide any value-added services to the
latter. However, such value-added services do not form part of identity services.
11. The ISPA is responsible to EIDAV for all its authentication related operations as covered in
the contract between EIDAV and the ISPA. Even if the ISPA outsources part of its operations
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to other entities, the responsibility for the operations and authentication results lies with
the ISPA.
12. In case of investigation of an authentication-related fraud or dispute, the ISPA extends
full cooperation to EIDAV (or its agency) and/or any other authorized investigation agency.
This includes providing access to its premises, records, systems, personnel,
infrastructure, any other relevant resource/information and any other relevant aspect of
its authentication operations.
Eligibility Criteria
The eligibility criteria of an ISPA are enumerated below.
1. The agency may be:
a. A central/provincial government ministry/department or its Public Service
Undertaking (PSU) owned and manage by the central/provincial government; or an
authority constituted under a central/provincial act; or a not-for-profit
company/special purpose organization of national importance; or a company
registered in Vietnam meeting the following requirements.
i. Financial capabilities. An annual turnover of at least VND 100 million in the
last three financial years.
ii. Technical capabilities.
iii. A Telecom Service Provider (TSP) operating pan-Vietnam fiber optics
network and having a minimum of 100 MPLS Points of Presence (PoP)
across all provinces; or a Network Service Provider (NSP) capable of
providing network connectivity for data, voice transmission and having an
agreement with a TSP that has 100 MPLS PoPs; or a System Integrator (SI)
having the necessary arrangement with a TSP/NSP as described above.
b. The agency has not been blacklisted by the central/provincial government, or any
of its PSU, in the last five years.
2. The agency demonstrates its capability to undertake the design, configuration,
implementation and maintenance of the infrastructure and systems required of an ISPA
following EIDAV specifications; it certifies that the necessary human resources with the
requisite skills are in place to perform its intended functions. The decision of EIDAV with
regard to entering into contract − or not − with a potential ISPA could be final.
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3. The ISPA may enter EISDF identity services ecosystem through the appointment process
determined and conducted by EIDAV. Entities wishing to become an ISPA may apply with
EIDAV by providing the necessary information along with supporting documents where
relevant. EIDAV examines the application and approves qualifying applicants as ISPA.
Approved ISPAs enter into contract with EIDAV and are permitted to build secure leased
line connections to EIDAV authentication server; the connections comply with EIDAV
standards and specifications.
4. Each ISPA contract may be for a specified duration, at the end of which an ISPA may be
free to apply for a renewal. EIDAV evaluates the renewal application and approves the
renewal of qualifying applications.
Responsibilities of an Identity Service Consumer Agency
1. The ISCA informs EIDAV of each transaction it wishes to have an authentication service
performed on and the appropriate authentication type it wishes to avail of. The choice of
authentication type indicates the specific identity information to be sought from the eID-
/NID-holder to enable that service. The choice of authentication type is a decision of the
ISCA alone; none of the other entities, including EIDAV and its ISPA, are responsible for
this decision. It is possible for an ISCA to change the authentication type of any service if
it so desires, and makes it known to EIDAV.
2. The ISCA adheres to the processes and the ISCA onboarding checklist provided by EIDAV
for getting started with EISDF identity services. As and when there are any changes in the
parameters, the ISCA keeps EIDAV informed of the list of its services that are enabled by
authentication. This process may be done in a self-service mode, such as an online update
through EIDAV portal.
3. The ISCA establishes its identity services-related operations (including systems,
processes, technology, infrastructure, security, etc.) in compliance with EIDAV standards
and specifications.
4. The ISCA is responsible for the provisioning of network from authentication devices to the
ISCA server and between the ISCA and ISPA servers; it ensures compliance with EIDAV
security specifications. In addition, it is responsible for procuring and deploying any
hardware/software/certificate/etc. that are compliant with eID authentication standards.
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5. The ISCA ensures that devices used for eID authentication are procured, deployed, and
managed by them or their agent(s) in compliance with EIDAV specifications and standards
published by EIDAV from time to time.
6. The ISCA logs all its identity service transactions and maintains them for a specified period
of time. The log may capture details of an authentication transaction, but not the
corresponding PID. The storage of transaction logs could comply with applicable laws and
regulations of the country. The details of logs stored, the duration of storage and any
other aspect of data storage could be determined by EIDAV specifications, regulations
applicable to the ISCA service and industry, the ISCA’s own requirements and other
applicable laws and regulations.
7. It is highly recommended that the ISCA deploy a Fraud Analytics module that is capable
of analyzing identity services-related transactions to identify fraud cases and patterns. If
the ISCA is a victim of a fraud, or identifies a fraud pattern through its Fraud Analytics
system, it shares all necessary information with EIDAV.
8. The encrypted PID block may not be stored, unless it is for buffered authentication for
only a short period of time; and after transmission, it is deleted. Biometric and OTP data
captured for the purposes of eID authentication may not be stored on any permanent
storage or database. The ISCA ensures that all relevant laws and regulations are adhered
to in relation to data storage and data protection in their systems; it also ensures that
their agents (if applicable) and authentication devices are in compliance.
9. In cases where the authentication devices are operated by ISCA personnel (or that of its
agent), it is the ISCA’s responsibility to ensure that adequate training on the operation is
given to its service representatives.
10. The ISCA ensures that its eID authentication systems are audited by an information
systems auditor certified by a recognized body before commencing its operations; the
ISCA provides a certified audit report to EIDAV confirming from time to time its compliance
with prescribed standards, directions, specifications, etc.
11. The ISCA ensures that its eID authentication operations and systems are audited by an
information systems auditor certified by a recognized body on an annual basis to confirm
compliance with EIDAV standards and specifications; the audit report is shared with EIDAV
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upon request. It is the ISCA’s responsibility to ensure that its sub-ISCAs and agents are
also audited regularly. In addition, EIDAV may reserve the right to audit the ISCA’s
operations and systems (and their agents, if applicable) by itself or through its appointed
auditor. During these audits, the ISCA cooperates fully with the audit agency and provides
them necessary access to its premises, procedures, records, systems, personnel and any
other relevant aspect of authentication operations. In case of non-compliance, EIDAV may
take appropriate action (such as termination of a contract after a suitable grace period for
remedial action). The cost of these audits may be borne by the ISCA.
12. The ISCA is responsible for identifying exception-handling mechanisms and back-up
identity authentication mechanisms when the eID-based federated authentication fails.
Authentication failures may occur in the process, infrastructure (including power, IT,
devices, network connectivity), or biometric reading (where the eID-holder’s biometric
data cannot be acquired or used for some reason).
13. When an ISCA partners with a sub-ISCA, the ISCA informs EIDAV of the partnership before
starting to serve the new sub-ISCA. Similarly, when a sub-ISCA disengages with the ISCA,
the ISCA informs EIDAV within seven days (or a period specified by EIDAV) of
disengagement. The process of such updates is envisaged to be in a self-service mode
(such as an online update through EIDAV portal). When an ISCA engages with a sub-ISCA,
it generates a sub-ISCA code to identify the specific sub-ISCA. When informing EIDAV of
its engagement with the sub-ISCA, the ISCA also informs EIDAV of the new sub-ISCA code.
When transmitting identity service requests from a sub-ISCA, the ISCA always includes
the sub-ISCA code so that the eID authentication transaction log can track the origin of
all authentication requests. It is necessary that for each sub-ISCA, a separate license key
is used so that the engagement and disengagement of sub-ISCAs can be easily
accomplished by creating and revoking their respective license keys.
14. It is the ISCA’s responsibility to ensure that all sub-ISCAs under it are regularly audited
for compliance with EIDAV specifications. In case of non-compliance or default, the ISCA
may report it to EIDAV and take correction action according to EIDAV guidelines.
15. When an ISCA engages a sub-ISCA, from EIDAV perspective, the ISCA is responsible for
the connectivity between the sub-ISCA’s authentication devices and the ISCA systems.
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16. Even if the ISCA outsources part of its operations to third party, the responsibility for the
identity services operations and results lies with the ISCA. The ISCA is also responsible for
ensuring that the identity service operations of the third party comply with EIDAV
standards and specifications, and that they are regularly audited by approved independent
audit agencies.
17. In case of investigation of an authentication-related fraud or dispute, the ISCA extends
full cooperation to EIDAV (or its agency) and/or any other authorized investigation agency.
This includes providing access to its (and, if applicable, their agents’) premises, records,
personnel, systems, relevant resource/information and any other relevant aspect of
authentication operations.
18. An ISCA proactively informs EIDAV of any misuse of eID data, authentication services, or
any compromise of eID-related data or systems within its network.
Eligibility Criteria
The eligibility criteria of an ISCA are enumerated below.
1. The agency may be:
a. A central/provincial government ministry/department or a PSU owned and
managed by the central/provincial government; or an authority constituted under
a central/province act; or a not-for-profit company/special purpose organization
of national importance; or a bank/financial institution/telecom company.
b. A legal entity registered in Vietnam that seeks to use eID authentication to enable
its services. Applications from such agencies may be considered and approved by
the ISCA approval board to be constituted by EIDAV.
2. The agency demonstrates the capability to undertake the implementation and
maintenance of the infrastructure and systems required to become an ISCA. The decision
of EIDAV regarding engagement of an ISCA could be final.
3. Agencies seeking to use eID authentication to enable their services may apply with EIDAV
by providing the necessary information along with the required supporting
documentation, as well as the information on the ISPA through which the ISCA could
connect to the authentication server.
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4. On receipt of the necessary information (and documentation, if relevant), EIDAV approves
an ISCA. On approval, the ISCA and EIDAV enter into contract.
Responsibilities of a Sub-ISCA
The responsibilities of a sub-ISCA could be similar to that of an ISCA. The responsibilities of an
ISCA covered above could be applicable to the sub-ISCA as well.
Eligibility Criteria
1. An entity desiring to become a sub-ISCA identifies the ISCA it wishes to engage with and
applies with that ISCA by providing the necessary information and supporting
documentation, if necessary.
2. The sub-ISCA commits to comply with EIDAV standards and specifications in their eID
authentication operations.
3. The ISCA informs EIDAV of the engagement with the sub-ISCA and commences its services
to the latter.
Authentication Devices
Deployment Criteria
1. Authentication devices may be deployed in the eID authentication ecosystem by the ISCA,
sub-ISCA or the agents of ISCA/sub-ISCA or the eID-holder.
2. The ISCA/sub-ISCA is responsible for the provision of network from devices to the sub-
ISCA/ISCA server and on to the ISCA/ISPA server; it is also responsible for ensuring
network security. In addition, they may be responsible for procuring and deploying any
hardware/software/certificate/etc. that comply with eID authentication standards.
3. The ISCA/sub-ISCA is responsible for the installation of eID authentication standards-
compliant hardware/software/certificate/etc. on the Internet-connected device of their
customers/beneficiaries/subscribers (CBS).
Features of Authentication Devices
1. They are compliant with EIDAV standards and specifications.
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2. Biometric authentication devices are compliant with EIDAV biometric data standards and
are certified to be so by the designated department in the government.
3. Biometric authentication devices employ “best finger” detection exposed by the EISDP.
4. Biometric authentication device vendors equip their product using Software Development
Kit (SDK) Application Programming Interface (API) specification published by EIDAV to
ensure interoperability.
5. Authentication devices may be operator-assisted or self-operated.
6. They are capable of collecting relevant information from NID-/eID-holders, preparing
authentication data packets (PID block), performing structural validation of data,
transmitting data packets and receiving authentication results along with instructions on
next steps, if any. Collection of eID information by the authentication devices is carried
out in compliance with EIDAV specifications.
7. Authentication devices are deployed such that they cannot retain eID-holders’ biometric
and OTP data captured for the purposes of eID authentication during a transaction, except
in case of buffered authentication described below, in which case they may be able to
store encrypted data for a certain period of time.
8. In terms of data storage, authentication devices comply with all applicable laws and
regulations of the country.
Responsibilities of the eID-/National ID-holder
1. eID-/NID-holders consent to be authenticated with their eID-based PID and present it
voluntarily to access the ISCA/sub-ISCA services.
2. It is the eID-/NID-holders’ responsibility to keep their PID in the CRIDS valid and current.
They do so on a periodic basis or on a need-basis, as the case may be. Some instances
where an update may be necessary:
a. To inform releavant GoV agencies of a change in address
b. To update the collection of fingerprints on a periodic basis
c. To correction any errors
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3. eID-/NID-holders may approach EIDAV in case they have reason to believe that their eID
PID has been compromised by any of the agents in the authentication ecosystem.
4. eID-/NID-holders proactively inform EIDAV of any misuse of eID data or authentication
services.
The rights, responsibilities and obligations of eID-/NID-holders are covered in detail in the eID-
/NID-holder’s Charter.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible individuals seeking eID identity enter the eID authentication ecosystem when they enroll
with the NID system by providing their demographic and biometric identity information. On
successful completion of the enrollment process, each eligible individual obtains his/her unique
NIN. This identity information is stored against the corresponding NIN in the CRIDS.
eID Seeding Service
The operating model for eID seeding service could be managed and operated by the following
EISDF organizational structure entities that could have well-defined roles and responsibilities.
The key roles and responsibilities are described below:
1. The National Identification Authority of Vietnam could provide the necessary tools,
expertise, best practices, and consulting advisory on request to the service providers for
implementing the eID seeding, such as:
a. Seeding utility and the National Electronic Seeding Platform (NESP) for use by the
service providers.
b. Necessary documentation on its public portal.
c. Online registration on its public portal for ISCAs to access relevant tools.
2. The Identity Service Consumer Agency could be a service provider interested in availing
of identity verification functions for use in its service delivery process; it could be
responsible for the seeding of the NIN/eID in its service enablement database. Among its
responsibilities are:
a. Preparing its service enablement database by performing data digitization and
centralization.
b. Choosing its seeding strategy: top-down or organic method.
c. Registering with EIDAV for using the offline utility and NESP.
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d. Performing the demographic and biometric authentication using eID
authentication.
e. Setting up the required communication channels with the CBS, if using organic
seeding.
eKYC Service
The operating model for the eKYC process may be managed and operated by the same
organizational structure entities involved in the eID authentication service. The key roles and
responsibilities from the eKYC perspective are described below.
1. National Identification Authority of Vietnam. As in eID authentication, the NIDAV could be
the overall regulator and overseer of the eKYC process and supporting ecosystem. Its
functions:
a. To provide eKYC access to ISCAs wishing to use it in business operations as a
prerequisite extending their service to eID-/NID-holders.
b. To determine the operating and engagement model for the eKYC.
c. To determine the rules regarding the usage of eKYC.
d. To ensure that the eligibility criteria for the MISP include the design and
implementation of the eKYC as part of the responsibilities.
e. To determine the eligibility criteria and entry process for ISCAs to access the eKYC
service, facilitate the application and registration for its use, then enter into
contract with them.
f. To determine the standards and specifications that could be adhered to by all
(including ISPAs, ISCAs and sub-ISCAs) that participate in the eKYC ecosystem.
The standards and specifications include systems and processes; it also includes
specifications for API, infrastructure, devices, processes, technology, certification
(if any), audit, security, and SLAs (where applicable). In summary, the NIDAV could
determine the minimum standards and specifications for eKYC, while ecosystem
partners may extend and add other specifications and standards to meet their
domain and application needs.
g. To publish documents on its website on eKYC-related standards and specifications
it prescribes. The NIDAV could choose to certify all applications that could be used
by ISCAs (and sub-ISCAs) in enabling their eKYC operations − by itself or through
approved independent certification agencies.
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2. Managed Identification Service Provider. The MISP could offer eKYC service on behalf of
the NIDAV. Its main area of responsibility could include eKYC transaction operations (i.e.,
receive authentication request, execute a match of PID received by calling eID
authentication service and transmit the result), network and data center operations,
availability of eKYC service, SLAs with ISCA (if any) and monitoring operations and
performance metrics.
3. Identity Service Provider Agency. The sole channel to the eKYC process could be through
the secure leased line network of an ISPA.
4. Identity Service Consumer Agency. The ISCA could be any agency that seeks to use the
eKYC service to enable its service delivery. Each ISCA may use the eKYC process to enable
one or more of its services. An ISCA enters into a formal contract with the NIDAV in order
to access it. The ISCA ensures that the eKYC request originating from its device is
compliant with the standards and specifications prescribed by NIDAV and duly completed
before transmission to its ISPA.
a. The eKYC service delivery workflow requires a call to the authentication service for
getting the consent of the resident. Hence the ISCA, in addition to its eKYC service
responsibilities, could also have all the responsibilities involved in the delivery of
authentication service.
b. The ISCA adheres to the processes and the ISCA onboarding checklist provided by
NIDAV for getting started with the eKYC service. As and when there are any
changes in the parameters, the ISCA keeps the NIDAV informed of the list of its
services that are enabled by eKYC. This exercise may be done in self-service mode,
such as an online update on the NIDAV portal.
c. The ISCA may up its eKYC-related operations (including systems, processes,
technology, infrastructure, security, etc.) in compliance with NIDAV standards and
specifications.
d. The ISCA may use the network provided by the ISPA between Identity service
devices, and ISCA and ISPA servers, for authentication service. In addition, it could
be responsible for procuring and deploying any hardware, software, certificate,
etc., in compliance with eKYC standards.
e. The ISCA logs all its eKYC transactions and maintains them for a specified period
of time. The log captures details of an eKYC transaction, but not the corresponding
PID. The storage of transaction log complies with applicable laws and regulations
of the country. Details of the log stored, the duration of storage and any other
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aspect of data storage could follow NIDAV specifications, regulations applicable
to the ISCA service and industry, the ISCA’s own requirements and other applicable
laws and regulations.
f. The Fraud Analytics module deployed by the ISCA could be capable of analyzing
eKYC-related transactions to identify fraud cases and patterns.
g. In cases where the Identity service devices are operated by ISCA personnel (or their
agents’), the ISCA could be responsible for ensuring that it gets adequate training
for performing eKYC-related tasks.
h. The ISCA ensures that its eKYC-related systems are audited by an information
systems auditor certified by a recognized body before commencing operations;
the ISCA provides a certified audit report to the NIDAV from time to time
confirming its compliance with prescribed standards, directions, specifications,
etc.
i. The ISCA is responsible for identifying exception-handling and back-up
mechanisms when the eKYC function fails. Failures may occur in the process,
infrastructure (including power, IT, devices, network connectivity) or biometric
reading (where eID-holder’s biometric data cannot be acquired or used for some
reason).
j. When transmitting eKYC requests from a sub-ISCA, the ISCA always includes the
sub-ISCA code so that the log can track the origin of all transactions.
k. Could the ISCA outsource part of its operations to third party entities, the
responsibility for the eKYC operations and results could still lie with the ISCA. The
ISCA could also be responsible for ensuring that the eKYC-related operations such
as those performed by third party entities comply with NIDAV standards and
specifications. The ISCA could likewise ensure that the third party entities are
regularly audited by approved independent audit agencies.
l. In case of investigation of an eKYC-related fraud or dispute, the ISCA extends full
cooperation to the NIDAV (or its agency) and/or any other authorized investigation
agency. This includes providing access to its premises, records, personnel,
systems, relevant resource/information and any other relevant aspect of
authentication operations − as well as those of its agents.
5. Sub-ISCA. Any legal entity registered in Vietnam wishing to use eKYC service to enable
its services could become an ISCA or it could access it through an existing one. In the
latter case, it becomes a sub-ISCA of the ISCA it engages with.
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6. Identity Service Device. It may be the same device as that used for eID authentication and
it could have the capability to capture the inputs required by eKYC service. It could be
operator-assisted or self-operated. The device may be a desktop, laptop, kiosk, handheld
mobile, etc., that are − if required − integrated with or connected to biometric tools for
capturing fingerprints and/or iris images. It could be operated by the ISCA or a sub-ISCA,
or agents of the ISCA/sub-ISCA.
7. eID-/NID-holders. In the context of eKYC service, they are usually associated with ISCAs
or sub-ISCAs as customers, employees or associates; as such, they seek access to
ISCA/sub-ISCA services. For them to gain access, they need to provide their KYC data for
registration in the eKYC service. The eID-/NID-holders are responsible for providing
consent to the eKYC process.
Mobile ID Service
Mobile Phone with Specialized SIM
A mobile phone with specialized SIM has SSCD capability, activated digital certificate or
biometrics, and a private key. It is issued by the RA and hosts the mobile service request
application and the private keys stored on the SIM.
Responsibilities of a Registration Authority
The RA could typically be a nationalized mobile operator such as Vittel, Mobiphone, Vinaphone,
etc., responsible for the provisioning of specialized SIMs with SSCD functionality to residents at
its service outlets across the country. For a mobile operator to become an RA, it could have to
register with EIDAV.
The RA could be responsible for user registration and certificate activation of mobile ID service
provided to residents. It could also be responsible for termination of service due to such reasons
as resident’s request, lost/compromised SSCD, certificate expiry, or violation of the user-CA
agreement.
Responsibilities of a Trusted Service Provider
The Trusted Service Providers (TSPs) could be the mobile operator responsible for forwarding the
mobile ID service request from EIDAV to the mobile phone of the resident over the mobile
network. It could also be responsible for sending the signed data from the mobile phone to the
CA, and getting back to EIDAV with the authentication response.
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Mobile operators may have to register with EIDAV to become an authorized TSP. The TSP provides
the wPKI service to EIDAV and the ISCAs and it could be responsible for monitoring PKI-related
problems and providing support for their resolution.
Responsibility of a Certification Authority
The CA could be responsible for issuing and validating the certificate; it could also validate the
signed data in response to the TSP request.
Responsibility of the Electronic Identification Authority of Vietnam
EIDAV could host the mobile ID service in its data center, and register and hire all the ecosystem
entities that could play roles in this scalable delivery of services.
Responsibility of an Identity Service Consumer Agency
The ISCA could be any agency seeking to use mobile ID functions to enable its services. Each ISCA
may use mobile ID to enable one or more of its services. The ISCA could be responsible for
integrating its service delivery application (websites) to the mobile ID service provided by EIDAV.
Responsibilities of an Identity Service Provider Agency
The ISPA may be an agency that establishes secure leased line connectivity with the mobile ID
service hosted on the mobile ID servers in EIDAV data center. It transmits authentication requests
on behalf of an ISCA and receives the response back from the mobile ID server.
Responsibilities of a Resident User
The resident may obtain the specialized SIM from the RA service outlet. To acquire one, the
resident could have to provide his/her NIN and demographic data to allow verification of identity
through authentication at the RA service outlet. The resident could validate his/her identity-
related data on the mobile phone during the registration process after which, the resident
acquires the PIN and activation code. Henceforth, the resident could be responsible for the card.
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Annex 5: International Experiences
Many countries have launched the national Electronic Identity (eID) system and are at various
stages of deployment and usage. Since many nations have only recently begun their rollouts,
adoption levels are expanding daily as more citizens receive their eID and government agencies
and businesses launch new services that make use of this platform. While no country has achieved
universal adoption and use, some countries have made more progress than others. This section
identifies the various eID services implemented by three countries, notably India, Estonia and
Belgium; and how the eID has improved the quality of citizen/customer service delivery. It also
looks at the experiences of these countries and highlights the key factors that have impacted the
successful implementation and increased usage of the eID system.
I. India
1. In India, an inability to prove identity was one of the biggest barriers preventing the poor
from accessing benefits and subsidies. The Government of India did not provide a national
identification document with a unique number to the residents. In the absence of resident identity
creation at the national level, service agencies typically followed their own process for identity
creation and entitlement identification for their customers/beneficiaries/subscribers (CBS). The
tokens provided by service agencies to individuals were used for both identity authentication and
entitlement verification. As part of the identity creation process, most of the service agencies
required the individuals to furnish physical identity documents or service utilization bills provided
by other service agencies like Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, passport, driver’s license,
telephone bill, etc. Only 50 million Indians had a passport, close to 100 million had a PAN card,
and approximately 200 million had a drivers’ license, but there was a vast section of the
population who did not have any identity proof. This approach resulted in a situation where a
part of the population had multiple identity tokens, while a significant portion did not have any
at all as they did not avail any of those services. Also, only certain identity tokens were accepted
as identity proof at the national level, e.g., PAN card, passport, and ration card. In order to achieve
the goal of financial inclusion and reduce the poverty within the country, it was felt there needed
to be an identification system to cover those who did not possess any proof of identity so that
they could participate in the social programs and avail of benefits they were entitled to.
2. The move to have an identity creation system resulted in the following challenges:
a. Multiple identities for the same person due to the lack of a national mechanism to
uniquely identify an individual.
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b. Limited or no interoperability as most of the identity tokens were accepted for a
specific purpose and at a specific location only.
c. Leakages of welfare benefits owing to the creation of numerous duplicates and fake
identities within the same benefit program as it was impossible to uniquely identify
the individuals.
d. High risk of resident identity theft and misuse of photocopied identity documents
submitted as proofs, it being easy to forge paper-based documents.
e. Duplication of effort in identity creation in silos by each service agency increased
overall cost of identification, and caused extreme inconvenience to the individuals.
f. Creation of separate identity for each program for the same individual results in
service agencies unable to correlate different benefits given to an individual through
various programs resulting in the inability to verify correct entitlements and a
potentially lower impact from welfare programs.
3. Most of the service agencies issued physical identity tokens of the “what the user has”
type like cards for PAN, ration, pension, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS),
etc., which can only be authenticated manually. This identity authentication mechanism presented
the following challenges:
a. Higher setup cost with limited scalability. It works only in the assisted mode.
b. Difficulty in identifying fake documents and copies.
c. Inability to verify that the person carrying the token is the rightful owner unless it
carries the person’s photo.
d. Difficulty in recognizing misuse − there is no authentic audit trail mechanism; instead
it requires exhaustive manual checking.
4. Given this context, the Government of India embarked on the Unique Identification (UID)
project in January 2009 with the mission to issue a unique identification number that became
known as Aadhaar. The Aadhaar may be verified and authenticated in an online cost-effective
manner that is robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities.
5. The Aadhaar identifies a resident and provides the resident the means to clearly establish
his/her identity to public and private agencies across the country. The three key characteristics
of Aadhaar are: (a) permanency (it remains the same throughout an individual’s lifetime); (b)
uniqueness (one resident has one ID; no two residents have same); and (c) globalness (the same
identifier can be used across applications and domains).
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6. The Aadhaar is provided during the enrollment process when a resident’s demographic
and biometric information are collected and the uniqueness of the data is established through a
process called deduplication. Post deduplication, an Aadhaar number is issued and a letter is sent
to resident informing of the details.
7. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has adopted the use of biometrics
technology as part of its core strategy in meeting its goal of preventing issuance of duplicate
identity number to a resident. The biometrics used are fingerprint and iris scans. The
deduplication process involves matching the biometric data of the resident against those of every
resident in the database to ensure uniqueness. Only after this process is a 12-digit Aadhaar
number issued.
8. For any service agency, establishing both identity and service entitlement of the
beneficiary is necessary. Though individual identity may be unique and independent of services
desired, entitlement is very specific to the service being availed of and it has to be established by
each service agency separately. Hence, instead of assigning the role and responsibilities of the
authentication service to an existing ministry, the UIDAI was created as the overall regulator and
overseer of the Aadhaar authentication system.
9. The UIDAI was established under the Planning Commission. It was created by an executive
order under the aegis of the Planning Commission to ensure a pan-departmental and neutral
identity for the authority and, at the same time, enable a focused approach to attaining the goals
set for the Eleventh Five-Year Plan that covered 2007-2012. Its role was to develop and
implement the necessary institutional, technical and legal infrastructure to issue unique identity
numbers to Indian residents. The UIDAI was created as a statutory body under a separate
legislation to fulfill its objectives. The law also stipulates rules, regulations, processes and
protocols to be followed by the different agencies partnering with the UIDAI in issuing and
verifying unique identity numbers.
10. The UID only provides identity19. The UIDAI purview is limited to the issuance of a unique
identification number linked to a person's demographic and biometric information. It is not
responsible for issuing the card. The UID may only guarantee identity, not rights, benefits or
entitlements.
19 http://uidai.gov.in/UID_PDF/Front_Page_Articles/Documents/Strategy_Overveiw-001.pdf
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11. The UID number does not contain intelligence. Loading intelligence into identity numbers
makes them susceptible to fraud and theft. The UID is a random number.
12. A steering cabinet committee headed by the Prime Minister and a group of ministers from
key ministries such as Finance, Agriculture, External Affairs, Law and Justice, Communication and
Information and Technology, and Labor and Employment among others, was constituted with the
function of managing all issues related to the UIDAI, including its organization, plans, policies,
programs, schemes, funding and methodology to be adopted for achieving the objectives of that
authority.
13. The project included the establishment of the national identity infrastructure for the
creation and usage of the national unique identity that is digital and verifiable online. It
addressed the existing challenges faced by service agencies in identity establishment. Following
are its key benefits.
a. Since it works anywhere in India, it is portable identity that is verifiable online.
b. It does away with duplicate and fake identities thereby plugging leakages of welfare
benefits.
c. It authenticates the individual every time as that same and unique person anywhere
and anytime; therefore, it ensures that the rightful claimant gets the service or benefit.
d. It has higher scalability of services with online authentication, allowing the service
agencies to use multiple channels for service delivery.
e. It reduces beneficiary harassment and rent seeking due to lower dependency on
manual processes.
f. It is a more efficient service delivery process and reduces the cost of identity
establishment.
g. It eliminates the need to submit physical copies of identity documents and reduces
the risk of identity theft associated with physical documents usage.
h. It has a built-in electronic audit trail allowing service agencies to track their service
delivery process more effectively.
14. The UID proves identity, not citizenship. The UID is proof of identity and does not confer
citizenship.
15. The previous identity databases in India were fraught with problems of fraud and duplicate
or ghost beneficiaries. To prevent this from seeping into the new database, the UIDAI decided
not to use the data that existed previously. Instead, it undertook a new enrollment process for
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the proper collection and verification of residents’ demographic and biometric information. This
ensured that the data collected is clean from the start of the program.
16. The UIDAI introduced the “introducer system” for residents who do not have any form of
identification and where the UID could be the first form of identification they have access to. This
was to enable financial inclusion so that much of the poor and underserved population could get
a UID. The introducer could be a person who stands as the guarantor of a resident’s personal
demographic data in the UID system.
17. The main service offered to the residents and service providers in both public and private
organizations is Aadhaar authentication. The purpose of authentication is to enable Aadhaar-
holders to prove their identity digitally and online, and for service providers to confirm the
residents’ identity claim before supplying services or giving access to benefits.
18. Typically, an individual identity is defined in terms of demographic attributes, i.e., name,
gender, age and address. But demographic data alone cannot guarantee uniqueness. Uniqueness
of identity, however, is possible by linking demographic attributes with biometric attributes like
fingerprint and iris patterns of the individual. Aadhaar is a unique 12-digit randomly generated
identity number assigned to the resident. It is linked to the resident’s unique personal
demographic and biometric data stored in the centralized database, the Central Identities Data
Repositoty (CIDR). For the sake of uniqueness, there is one identity number to one person, and
one person has one unique identity number. To achieve this, the resident profile is run through
a rigorous demographic and biometric deduplication process with 99.99% accuracy before
assigning the unique identity number to the resident profile.
19. The incentives in the UID system are aligned towards a self-cleaning mechanism. The past
patchwork of multiple databases in India gave individuals the incentive to provide different
personal information to different agencies. Since deduplication in the UID system ensures that
residents have only one chance to be in the database, individuals are encouraged to provide
accurate data. This incentive may become especially powerful as benefits and entitlements are
linked to the UID.
20. Aadhaar authentication20 is the process in which the unique identification number, along
with the holder’s Personal Identity Data (PID), is submitted to the CIDR at UIDAI for matching,
20 Aadhaar Operating Model - http://www.uidai.gov.in/images/authDoc/d3_1_operating_model_v1.pdf
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following which the CIDR verifies the correctness on the basis of the match with the Aadhaar
holder’s identity information available with it. The UIDAI either confirms proof of identity or
verifies the information provided by the resident. To protect resident privacy, the Aadhaar
authentication service responds only with “yes/no”; none of the PID is mentioned in the response.
21. The authentication services are available to the resident to prove his/her identity
anywhere, anytime and in multiple modes. A service provider can choose either single-factor or
multi-factor authentication. The Aadhaar, by itself, is not a factor for authentication. The
Aadhaar, along with demographic attributes (name, address, etc.) or One-Time-Password (OTP)
or single/multiple biometric attributes (fingerprint, iris, etc.), may be used to provide single-
factor authentication. Alternatively, the three attributes may be used in combination for a multi-
factor authentication process.
22. Authentication services are of different types21 depending on the authentication attributes
used.
a. Type 1: Demographic. This uses demographic attributes (name, address, date of
birth/age, gender, mobile, email) singly or in combination. It can be used periodically
to check validity of the credential,s or for cleaning up the service provider database
by removing duplicates.
b. Type 2: OTP. This uses a one-time password that is delivered to a mobile number or
email address on request initiated by a resident or an application. It may be used for
authenticating residents for Internet and mobile transactions, as well as in cases where
deployment of biometric technology is difficult or not practical.
c. Type 3: Biometric. This uses fingerprint and/or iris scans. It requires residents to be
present to allow fingerprint and iris capture on a device. It is used when biometric
authentication is considered essential as in Know-Your-Customer (KYC) process,
financial transactions, attendance tracking, etc.
d. Type 4: Multi-factor. This uses biometric scans and OTP/mobile. As it is a multi-factor
authentication, therefore, it provides greater assurance.
21 Aadhaar Authentication Framework -
http://www.uidai.gov.in/images/authDoc/d2_authentication_framework_v1.pdf
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23. The features22 in the Aadhaar authentication service include demographic and biometric
data matching. It also offers OTP usage, “yes/no” response, digitally signed request/response,
response code, response timestamp, self-verifiability of response, encryption and tamper-
proofing.
24. Federated Mode of Aadhaar Authentication. Most current authentication systems could be
described as “local” (i.e., pertaining to and/or valid for a few services, situations or entities) and
“revocable” (in which an existing identity factor could be revoked and reissued as a result of
expiry, compromise or other valid reasons). Such revocable, local authentication systems come
with a set of strengths and limitations. The Aadhaar authentication system, on the other hand,
could be described as “global” due of its applicability across situations, service providers and
services. It is also “non-revocable” since Aadhaar identity factors, such as fingerprints and iris
scans, cannot generally be revoked or replaced. Global, non-revocable/permanent authentication
systems come with their own set of strengths and limitations. In the federated authentication
model, the global-irrevocable Aadhaar authentication co-exists with and strengthens the local-
revocable kind done by authentification user agencies. It is expected that such a federated
approach may result in authentication systems that are stronger and more reliable than those
that are based solely on either the global-irrevocable model or the local-revocable model.
Aadhaar authentication has been designed with the view to strengthening the service providers’
existing authentication systems, rather than as a replacement. While the federated model does
not mandate the existence or use of a service provider’s own authentication (if a service provider
so wishes, it could use only Aadhaar authentication by itself), service providers are encouraged
to use Aadhaar authentication in conjunction with their own local authentication to render the
overall authentication system stronger and more reliable. This is called the federated mode of
Aadhaar authentication.
25. Aadhaar and identity authentication are used by the service delivery provider mainly for
establishing presence and proof of delivery, KYC credentials, and as a unifier for resident-centric
information.
26. In the case of establishing presence and proof of delivery, confirming beneficiaries is a
common usage of the authentication services that ensures that the services are delivered to the
right individuals. It supports attendance tracking in the cases where wages/outlays are linked to
22 Aadhaar Enabled Service Delivery
http://uidai.gov.in/images/authDoc/whitepaper_aadhaarenabledservice_delivery.pdf
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the actual number of days a beneficiary reports for the program. It also facilitates financial
transactions as when a bank authenticates a customer using Aadhaar as well as bank-related
identity information (account number/user ID along with OTP, etc.) before enabling fund transfers
or withdrawals.
27. In the case of establishing KYC credentials, Identity and address verification is a key
requirement for enrolling a new customer or opening a new account for an individual. The service
provider in all such cases can verify applicant identity and address using Aadhaar authentication.
This is expected to substantially reduce the cost of KYC in providing these services. It can also
be used as a general Proof of Identity (PoI) for standard security-related requirements such as
entry to areas like airports; and in various examinations (medical or scholastic) where a large
number of impersonations are reported every year. The application of authentication in
demographic data and address verification in service delivery databases may help in their
cleansing and management.
28. The Aadhaar is a common identifier to link related databases. It enables the State view of
residents across schemes, e.g., the number of schemes accessed by a resident. It provides a
potential linkage of Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), a government scheme to decrease neo-natal
and maternal death; Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS); and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA), an education program. A linking of services could facilitate the tracking of health and
education for every child, healthcare and patient records database (local, regional and national
levels); credit bureaus could be able to avail of customer rating information; there could be a
national skills registry and tracking of individuals through the lifecycle; and large institutions
could have a single customer view across services provided by banks, insurance companies, etc.
29. The UIDAI has defined a scalable operating model with key players, their roles,
responsibilities and obligations in the Aadhaar authentication model23. Any agency that could like
to utilize Aadhaar authentication to enable its services may sign up as an Authentication User
Agency (AUA) and enter into an agreement with the UIDAI. The AUA in turn may need to engage
with an Authentication Service Agency (ASA). An ASA is an agency that has established secure
leased line connectivity to the CIDR at the UIDAI to transmit authentication request on behalf of
AUAs and receive response back from the CIDR. The ASAs build and maintain their secure
connectivity to the CIDR in compliance with the standards and specifications set by the UIDAI. An
AUA has the option of connecting to the CIDR by itself or through an existing ASA. Further, an
23 Aadhaar Authentication Operating model - http://www.uidai.gov.in/images/authDoc/d3_1_operating_model_v1.pdf
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agency desiring to use Aadhaar authentication could choose to become an AUA or it could choose
to access the authentication services through an existing AUA. In the latter case, it becomes a
sub-AUA of the AUA it engages with.
30. Terminal devices are devices employed by AUAs (both government and non-government)
to provide services to the residents. Examples include micro-ATM devices, Point of Sales (PoS)
devices, Position Detection System (PDS) terminals, and MGNREGA (a program which guarantees
the right to work), terminals and Access Security devices. These devices may host the applications
of the AUA and support biometric capture mechanism to collect biometrics of residents for
authentication purposes. Any additional features of these terminal devices may depend on the
specific needs of services offered by AUAs. These devices could comply with specifications issues
by the UIDAI to protect all the biometric and demographic information provided by the residents.
Terminal devices are registered with the Aadhaar system for encryption key management and are
referred to as registered terminal devices. Public terminal devices are not registered.
31. Biometric Device Specifications. The terminal device used in Aadhaar biometric-based
authentication has the capability to capture fingerprints and iris images of the resident at the
time of the service delivery. The UIDAI has defined its specifications24 based on open standards
so data captured using the device could ensure high data quality and result in greater accuracy.
32. The fingerprint-based biometric system is at the core of the UIDAI deduplication and
unique identification of the resident. Fingerprinting, the oldest biometric technology, has the
largest market share of all biometrics modalities globally. The fingerprint industry also has a
variety of suppliers and a base of experienced professionals necessary to implement the unique
identity management solution at the scale that India required. Face is the most commonly
captured biometric, and frequently used in manual checking. However, stand-alone, automatic
face recognition does not provide a high level of accuracy, and can only be used to supplement
a primary biometric modality.
33. Biometric Device Certification for UID Application. The UIDAI has adopted a certification
process for biometric devices to ensure the latter’s compliance to UIDAI specifications. The UIDAI
has delegated the responsibility of implementing the certification process to the Standardization
24 Biometric Devices Specifications for Aadhaar Authentication -
http://stqc.gov.in/sites/upload_files/stqc/files/New%20Revision%20_May_%201%20STQC%20UIDAI%20BDCS-03-
08%20UIDAI%20Biometric%20Device%20Specifications%20_Authentication_.pdf
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Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) directorate under the Department of Information
Technology (DIT). The directorate provides quality assurance services in the area of electronics
and IT through countrywide network of laboratories and centers. It maintains a list of certified
vendors’ biometric devices that may be used by service providers for biometric authentication.
Vendors who could like to get their biometric device certified have to follow the certification
process defined by the STQC that is published on the UIDAI portal25.
34. Best Finger Detection Service. Based on the results of a series of Proof of Concept (PoC)
studies on Aadhaar biometric authentication, it was learned that a resident being fingerprinted
for authentication may give prints of varying quality across all the fingers. Therefore, the accuracy
or the chances of being matched may vary due to these differences. This variation may also be
present due to the manner in which the resident normally interacts with a typical fingerprint
scanner, and the various fingers may inherently have different amount of identifying information
depending on the size of the finger and the commonness of the pattern it carries. Hence, the
UIDAI provides the Best Finger Detection (BFD)26 as stateless web service that can be called by the
service providers’ service delivery application to detect a resident’s finger that has the greatest
accuracy and yields successful matching results. The resident may then use the best finger to
ensure a high success rate in biometric authentication.
35. Biometric Software and Programming Specifications. The UIDAI has published on its public
portal the Aadhaar biometric Software Development Kit (SDK) and Application Programming
Interface (API) specifications27 that provide a single unified interface across multiple modalities
(face, fingerprint, and iris) for SDK developers from biometric device vendors to expose their
functionality to various modules of the Aadhaar system. This promotes vendor neutrality as the
use of standard APIs and open standards could eliminate proprietary and vendor-specific
features. It also promotes interoperability by using standard interfaces, common data format
definitions, and protocols across the components that expose similar functionality. The open API
allows the best of the breed algorithms to be used for special purposes. The API exposes quality
check, segmentation, sequencing, extraction and matching functionalities.
25 Biometric Device Certification Process - http://uidai.gov.in/biometric-devices/180.html
26 Aadhaar Best Finger Detection API Specifications -
http://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/aadhaar_bfd_api_1_6.pdf
27 Aadhaar Biometric SDK API Specification version 2 - http://uidai.gov.in/images/aadhaar_biometric_sdk_api_2_0.pdf
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36. The Aadhaar authentication supports the use of multiple factors. These factors include
demographic data, biometric data, PIN, OTP, possession of mobile, or combination thereof.
Adding multiple factors increases the strength of authentication depending on the factors.
Applications using Aadhaar authentication need to choose appropriate factors based on their
needs. However, not all factors are implemented at this time.
37. The UIDAI has published on its public portal the Aadhaar authentication API
specifications28 that are used by the AUAs and ASAs to integrate the authentication service call
into their service delivery application. They include API data format, protocol, and security
specifications.
38. The Aadhaar authentication services are exposed as stateless service over Hyper-text
Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). The usage of open data format in Extensible Markup Language
(XML) and widely used protocol such as HTTP allows easy adoption and deployment of Aadhaar
authentication.
39. In order for service provider agencies to leverage the Aadhaar authentication service in
delivering their services, they capture and store the 12-digit Aadhaar number (UID) with the
unique identifier (customer or beneficiary ID, etc.) in the service delivery databases. The process
by which the UID of residents are included in the service delivery database of service providers
for enabling Aadhaar-based authentication during service delivery is referred to as Aadhaar
seeding29.
40. Going forward, the Aadhaar may form the basic, universal identity infrastructure with
which registrars, government and other service providers across the country may be able to build
their identity-based applications. These features, in turn, are expected to serve multiple
transformational benefits in development and equitable growth through proper identification.
Eventually, they will lead to better targeting by development schemes of the government and the
private sector, ensuring that all fake, duplicate and ghost records are weeded out from databases
so that leakages resulting from such records are avoided. In the same vein, they will increase the
reach and efficiency of delivering many goods and services like PDS, banking and finance,
28 Aadhaar Authentication API Specifications -
http://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/aadhaar_authentication_api_1_6.pdf
29 Aadhaar seeding - http://uidai.gov.in/images/aadhaar_seeding_v_10_280312.pdf
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telecom, health, insurance, education, etc. and could no longer need repeated KYC checks on
residents. The seeding process, however, has to necessarily be preceded by data digitization and
centralization.
41. Data digitization essentially means collation of service delivery data in an electronic
format (database/Excel or similar) from where data can be retrieved using standard Structured
Query Language (SQL) queries. It is also important that personal identity data slowly becomes
consistent across multiple systems. The Aadhaar is also an initiative to standardize personal
identity information, and Aadhaar data may be used to clean the existing data.
42. Data centralization primarily manages availability and accessibility of distributed service
delivery data. The objective here is for the seeding process/utility to be able to access the service
delivery data and all related information in at least the read-only mode. For instance, in one state
pensioners’ data may be available in data silos across districts. A consolidated view of the entire
data may facilitate the social welfare department of the state to improve the service delivery in
its programs, while also being able to ensure that the same person is not availing double benefits
from two different districts. In case service delivery data is already digitized and centralized, then
no action is required from the seeding perspective.
43. There are two ways of seeding the service delivery database with the Aadhaar number:
top-down method and organic method. The former uses enrollment information available in the
Know-Your-Residence + (KYR+) and the Electronic Identity (eID)/UID files as input, while the
latter requires a service provider to contact the resident, or vice-versa, for the purpose of
updating the individual’s personal information through a process decided by the service
providerError! Bookmark not defined.. The completion of the seeding process may be followed
by the demographic/biometric authentication, especially where no direct update of the service
delivery database is enabled.
44. There are some common challengesError! Bookmark not defined. faced during the seeding
process and an understanding of these challenges has resulted in necessary precautions taken
early during the planning process. Some of the common challenges faced are: the complete data
were not captured in the service delivery databases; similar information across different data
sources do not have an exact match among them; the data in the service delivery database is in
a local language; all the required data are not available; and the regular tools cannot handle high
volume of data.
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45. The seeding process typically involves data extraction, consolidation, normalization and
matching. For performing these activities, the UIDAI developed GingerError! Bookmark not
defined., an in-house tool which may be used by service providers after signing a contract
agreeing that the tool is not to be used for purposes other than what it was intended for.
46. Remote Aadhaar Seeding Framework. The UIDAI designed and implemented the
centralized platform hosted by UIDAI, namely the Remote Aadhaar Seeding Framework30 (RASF)
with the objective of enabling the states to expedite their seeding efforts for a faster adoption of
Aadhaar-enabled service delivery. The service provider may use the centralized platform to seed
its service delivery database in a seamless manner by inserting the seeding request and validating
the data; this operation is performed by authorized users from the service providers.
47. Government and private sector service providers such as those in banking31, insurance32,
capital markets33, telecom34, LPG35, and railways36 have updated their KYC norms to include
Aadhaar as the valid KYC credential.
48. For stakeholders wishing to leverage the Aadhaar Identity solution in their service delivery
applications, the UIDAI has created a support group and a set of artifacts. The support structure
includes an applications group at the UIDAI, and empanelled consultants and software vendors
to help service providers build necessary processes and applications. Further, there are detailed
support documents for guidance on leveraging and integrating the Aadhaar solution such as:
a. Applications Onboarding and Readiness for service delivery providers.
b. Authentication Framework, Operating Model and Guidelines.
c. Criteria, checklists and activity templates for becoming an AUA or an ASA.
d. Aadhaar seeding solutions for service delivery databases to embed Aadhaar number.
49. The UIDAI has defined the registration process for the selection of key players (ASA, AUA,
sub-AUA, etc.) in the delivery of authentication services to the government and private
organizations. The process is simple enough for aspiring agencies to adopt but, at the same time,
30 Remote Aadhaar Seeding Framework - http://uidai.gov.in/images/uidai_rasf_v06_27022013.pdf
31 http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_ViewMasCirculardetails.aspx?id=7367
32 http://www.irda.gov.in/ADMINCMS/cms/whatsNew_Layout.aspx?page=PageNo1322&flag=1
33 http://www.sebi.gov.in/cms/sebi_data/attachdocs/1344851126270.pdf
34 http://www.dot.gov.in/as/2011/as_14.01.2011.pdf
35 http://uidai.gov.in/images/FrontPageUpdates/aadhaar_news_release_28_june.pdf
36 http://www.indianrail.gov.in/id_proof.doc
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it includes the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the agencies selected for the role
are capable of delivering the services. The UIDAI clearly defines the step-by-step process in
applying for the position and provides the supporting documents applicable to each player.
50. Technical Awareness and Adoption. The UIDAI has setup a public portal37 for building
technical awareness and providing technical support to the user agencies in both public and
private sector. It publishes technical documentations on the portal on a regular basis targeted at
software professionals working in the technology domain and interested in incorporating Aadhaar
authentication into their applications.
51. eKYC Service. The UIDAI has implemented eKYC service38 through which the service
providers can perform the KYC process electronically with explicit authorization by the resident.
In the eKYC process, the residents authorize the UIDAI through Aadhaar authentication using
either biometric data or OTP to provide their demographic data, along with their photograph
digitally signed and encrypted, to service providers. This helps the service providers perform a
paperless KYC on the residents in real time as part of their service delivery process using the
eKYC function. This could enable service providers to make instant service delivery to residents,
which otherwise could take a few days for activation pending verification of KYC documents,
digitization, etc. Also eliminated are the cost of repeated KYC, paper handling and storage, and
the risk of forged Proof of Identity (PoI) and Proof of Address (PoA) documents.
52. Aadhaar Payment Bridge (Aadhaar as a Payment Address). The UIDAI implemented the
Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) using Aadhaar-enabled payments Infrastructure: a system that
routes money to any resident on the basis of the Aadhaar number. This system facilitates
seamless transfers of all welfare scheme payments to beneficiary residents’ Aadhaar-Enabled
Bank Account (AEBA). At the time of Aashaar enrollment, residents provide their existing bank
account details or request for the opening of a new account that may be attached to their Aadhaar
number for all welfare scheme payments. The APB maintains a repository of residents’ Aadhaar
number with the corresponding primary bank account number used for receiving social security
and entitlement payments from various government agencies. The APB uses the compulsory
Aadhaar number as the primary key for all entitlement payments. This may weed out fake and
ghost identities from the system and ensure that the benefits reach the intended beneficiaries.
37 UIDAI public facing portal - http://uidai.gov.in/
38 e-KYC service - http://uidai.gov.in/images/e_kyc_policy_note_final.pdf
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53. The UIDAI solution to financial inclusion makes use of the combination of Aadhaar as a
payment address and the eKYC for instant account creation with the Aadhaar-enabled payment
infrastructure. The funds are able to reach residents with an Aadhaar number, irrespective of
whether they have a bank account or not. If they have an AEBA, the money can be transferred into
it. If they do not have one, an instant account may be created on the basis of the Aadhaar number
with a debit freeze. The money that is transferred is credited into the instant account which is
activated during the first withdrawal on the basis of the eKYC function.
II. Estonia
1. Estonia has one of the most advanced eSocieties in the world. An incredible success story
that grew out of the partnership between a forward-thinking government, a pro-active ICT sector,
and a switched-on, tech-savvy population. Seventy-eight percent of the population aged 16-74
years uses the Internet39 (Statistics Estonia). Seventy-one percent of households have Internet
capabilities (Statistics Estonia, 2011) and all the Estonian Schools are connected to the Internet.
2. Estonia did not have any national personal identification document – neither physically
nor electronically. Hence, Estonia implemented the eID system to identify its citizens and alien
residents within the country using the ID card as the primary identification document.
3. The ID card provides two main functions. The first is as a physical form of identity – used
as a regular ID in conventional real-world situations, anywhere one may typically need to prove
identity, age and so on. The second function is for electronic identification − it enables citizens
to use the same card to electronically authenticate to websites and networks, and/or to digitally
sign communications and transactions, as required.
4. The first electronic ID card was issued in 2002; it was issued to 130,000 residents that
first year40. As of January 2012, more than 1.1 million people in Estonia (almost 90 percent of
inhabitants) had ID cards41. The Estonian ID card is used for delivering auxiliary identity services
and it is the mandatory document for personal identification of residents from the age of 15. It
can be used for signing documents electronically, for personal identification, and for data
39 Who, where and why uses the Internet - http://www.stat.ee/dokumendid/68627
40 eID in action: Estonia - http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/4487/5584.html
41 e-Estonia - http://estonia.eu/about-estonia/economy-a-it/e-estonia.html
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encryption functions. The card has two certificates in X.509 v3 format and two associated private
keys protected by a PIN saved on the ID card: (a) a certificate for digital personal identification,
data signing and encryption; and (b) a certificate for digital signing, enabling the cardholder to
issue a eSignature. On ID cards issued after January 1, 2007, the certificates are valid for as long
as the card itself, i.e., five years; and there is no need to renew the certificates.42 The card bears
the personal digital file containing the residents’ personal profile43. The card is a smart card and
complies with ISO/IEC 7816 standard. The ID card was created to function both as a physical ID
and an electronic ID and may be valid for up to ten years. In emergency cases (e.g., loss of the
card), the certificates can be suspended, if required – disabling the ability to use the card for
electronic authentication and transactions.
5. The digital certificates issued in association with the ID card scheme are qualified
certificates as per the European Digital Signature e directive 1999/93/EC44.
6. Apart from physical identification for service delivery, the key eID services delivered are
eSignature (digitally sign eDocuments), authentication (electronic authentication of the resident),
and document encryption. They are used by service providers in the government and the private
sector as the common auxiliary services enabling service delivery.
7. The digital personal authentication service authenticates the resident electronically at the
time of the eService delivery using the personal identification certificate on the eID document.
The personal identification certificate contains the information about the resident and the
resident can prove that it is him/her by entering the PIN. Desktop and web applications use this
information to identify the users at the time of service delivery.
8. The eSignature enables residents to sign eDocuments digitally using the signing
certificate and a pair of keys on their eID document (ID card or mobile phone) apart from the
identification certificate. The Estonia ESignature Act (ESA)45 passed in 2000 ensures that the
eSignature of the resident given with the signing key pair on the e-ID token that have the validity
42 http://www.id.ee/index.php?id=31015
43 Personal Data File on the card -
https://eid.eesti.ee/index.php/General_information_for_developers#Using_the_personal_data_file
44 European ESignature Directives 1999/93/EC -
http://www.columbia.edu/~mr2651/ecommerce3/2nd/statutes/ElectronicSignaturesDirective.pdf
45 Estonia ESignatures Act (DSA – 2000) - http://www.legaltext.ee/text/en/X30081K4.htm
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certificate has legal binding and is equal to a traditional signature. Estonia is one of the few
European countries where the electronic signature functionality is not optional.
9. The certificates contain the cardholder’s name and personal ID number, and the
authentication certificate also contains an official email address unique to each cardholder.
Estonia provides an official email address to each citizen. The email address is used for official
government communications, but it can also be used for private communications. A citizen’s
email address is in the format “firstname.lastname_NNNN@eesti.ee” where NNNN represents four
random digits. Every cardholder can also receive email at the address “ID_CODE@eesti.ee” where
ID_CODE represents the personal ID number of the citizen. Estonia does not provide an email
service to its citizens; instead, the email address acts as a relay, and citizens specify an email
account where the messages are delivered. All email addresses are publicly listed on Estonia’s
National Registry of Certification Service Providers’ certificate directory.
10. The government implemented reliable and trustworthy identification infrastructure in
Estonia, receiving high acceptance by citizens and businesses and hence becoming a success in
terms of effectiveness and efficiency of its use in everyday life.
11. Given that the eID infrastructure is a very sensitive area in the public administration of
Estonia, it has been designed to be highly reliable and provides fulltime technical support. The
technical solution is based on the already proven technology that is provided by inner country
software and vendors. The solution is scalable, flexible, and standards-based for expansion to
other services as well as forward-looking to also enable cross-border use.
12. The digital stamp is a service that allows legal entities (e.g., companies) to sign documents
digitally. It is an equivalent of the ID card for companies. This confirms that the document comes
from the company that has signed it and that the document has not been changed in the interim.
Signatures (also in large quantities) can be attached to invoices, payment orders, confirmations,
certificates, bank statements (e.g., SEB bank offers an automatically digi-stamped bank
statement), etc. The company is issued a USB crypto-stick that has an X.509 certificate and,
similar to the eSignature, when the stamp is used, a container in DigiDOC format may be created
that contains the signed data.
13. The eID documents offer the functionality to encrypt and decrypt eDocuments using the
authentication certificate. This function is primarily meant for the safe transport of files in an
unsafe environment (e.g., the Internet) as opposed to the long-term storage of data.
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14. In Estonia, the usage of eID is regulated by the ESAError! Bookmark not defined. and the Identity
ocuments Act46, on the basis of which the Estonian ID card is issued. Estonia launched its
electronic ID card program in February 1999 when the Estonian Parliament passed the Identity
Documents Act. The Act became effective January 1, 2000, and established national guidelines
for the creation of a mandatory national identity card for the citizens of Estonia and permanent
resident aliens of the age of 15 years and above. Before this, Estonia did not have a national
personal identification document.
15. The Identity Documents Act also states that the deduplicated and processed residents
demographic and biometric data used for the personalization of the identity card is also entered
into the National Population Register pursuant to the Population Register Act47.
16. The specific legislation associated with eSignatures, the ESA, was passed separately by
the Estonian Parliament (Riigikogu) on March 8, 2000, and came into force on December 15,
2000. This law regulates the framework and rules required to effectively govern a national Public
Key Infrastructure (PKI) and eSignature infrastructure. The primary aim of the ESA was to give
electronic signatures the same level of trust and assurance as handwritten signatures. As a rule
the handwritten and eSignatures may be equivalent in both the public and private sector. The ESA
also states that public service departments could accept digitally signed documents. The ESA
requires that each eSignature may uniquely identify the signatory, bind the individual to the
signed data, and ensure that the signed data cannot be tampered with retrospectively without
invalidating the signature itself.
17. Rules and Regulations for Certificate Service Providers. One of the core components of
the ESA was the establishment of rules and regulations with regard to Certificate Service Providers
(CSPs) that issue digital certificates to users and manage related security services. The ESA
mandates a number of stringent financial and procedural requirements to ensure that CSPs are
set up and managed properly to perform their function to the highest possible standard.
18. Rules and Regulations for Timestamp Service Providers. The ESA also regulates time
stamping services that are provided by the Timestamp Service Providers (TSPs). The TSPs have to
adhere to similar laws and regulations as CSPs. The timestamp is simply a piece of information
46 Estonia Identity Documents Act (1999) - http://www.legislationline.org/documents/id/5718
47 Estonia Population Register Act (2000) - http://www.legaltext.ee/text/en/X40051K5.htm
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that attests to the occurrence of an event at a specific time. The ESA does not define timestamps
in great detail, but it ensures that timestamped data cannot be tampered with or amended without
invalidating the timestamp itself.
19. Personal Data Protection Act. Personal Data Protection Act regulates the use of personal
data and databases containing personal data by public authorities and private entities. Data
Protection Inspection is the government body overseeing that the requirements of the act are met
and enforcing compliance, if necessary. The strategy for data protection and ID card in Estonia is
that the card may contain as little private data as possible. Instead, the data may be kept in
databases at relevant authorities, and a person can use the card as the key (authorization method)
to access his/her data in the database. Requests by third parties (e.g., representatives of
authorities) for private data are logged and logs are available online for the individual on request
(via the citizen’s portal).
20. Digital Certificate of Identity. More commonly referred to as Digi-ID, this is a state digital
document for personal identification in an electronic environment and for issuing a eSignature.
Unlike the ID card, Digi-ID is not designed for visual personal identification; therefore, it does
not carry a photo - just the name, personal identification number and validity end-date. Also,
the personal data file is empty on a Digi-ID card, except for the document number field.
Cryptographically, it is a smart card similar to the ID card. While the issuance of an ID card can
take up to a month, Digi-ID cards are issued within minutes from the service points of the Police
and Border Guard Board.
21. Electronic Residence Card. Issued to foreigners residing in Estonia who are not citizens of
the European Union, the electronic residence card carries the data of the residence permit. In
terms of available electronic services, the functionalities of the residence card and the ID card are
the same. The main difference is that the ID card issued to citizens of Estonia and the EU can be
used as a travel document within the EU, while the residence card cannot be used for travelling
outside of Estonia. Another difference is that the residence card also carries a contactless chip
with the user's fingerprints and face image.
22. Mobile ID. Given that the penetration of mobile phones in Estonia is more than 100
percent, the government introduced the concept of mobile ID for electronic personal
identification and digital signing to accelerate the adoption of the eID for accessing its eServices.
Mobile ID is an electronic document of personal identification that can be used for electronic
personal identification and digital signing with a mobile telephone, where the mobile phone with
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its SIM functions simultaneously as the ID card and the card reader. For using a mobile ID, a
specialized SIM is required to enable the service. It may be obtained by signing a service contract
with a mobile operator. The mobile ID may become usable after it has been activated in the
electronic application environment of the Police and Border Guard Board, where the necessary
certificates are requested. Unlike other documents, certificates of a mobile ID are not saved on
the SIM. Unlike the ID card, a mobile ID cannot be used for document encryption – otherwise,
both DigiDocService and the mobile phone operator may see the decrypted data.
23. The mobile ID is issued by the national mobile operators in Estonia such as Elisa, EMT48,
at Tele2 at their local stores. Residents approach their mobile operator for the issuance of the
mobile ID at the nearest local store. Residents present their ID card with valid certificates for
getting the mobile ID. A resident has to sign a contract (mobile ID subscription agreement49) with
the mobile operator to get the mobile ID. The government has delegated the responsibility of
issuing mobile ID to the national mobile operators.
24. Mobile ID Certificate Activation. Residents have to activate the service on their handset
with the specialized SIM. To activate mobile ID service or to apply for certificates, the resident
has to go to the website of the Police and the Border Guard Board50 and submit an application for
the issue of new certificates. To get the certificate for mobile ID, the resident has to fill an online
application form on the police website and enter the ID card into the card reader and follow the
instructions.
25. The mobile operator charges the resident for the mobile ID service. The charges include
a one-time subscription fee and monthly fees. If the mobile ID is used outside of Estonia, each
mobile ID transaction is charged at the cost of sending one text message as per the package’s
price list.
26. The government implemented four main operating procedures for implementing the
mobile ID in Estonia. They are:
a. SIM Provision. The resident may go to any of the service providers offering mobile ID
service for registering the new mobile ID SIM. The service provider forwards the
48 EMT website - https://www.emt.ee/en/mugavusteenused/mobiil-ID#open-4077133-tab-5
49 Mobile ID Subscription agreement - https://www.emt.ee/en/era-arve
50 Police Web Site for activation of the Mobile ID – http://www.politsei.ee
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application to the Mobile Network Operator (MNO) and informs the resident of the
location from where to pick up the SIM. The MNO identifies the user using the ID card
and, on successful authentication, hands over a new SIM card to the resident or installs
the software into the resident’s SIM as needed. As part of the provisioning process,
the SIM is attached to a unique secure signature creation device (SSCD) for the unique
resident; the SSCD may be later used for issuing a qualified certificate. The SSCD
certificate is declared active for a particular SIM and is made available to all the TSPs.
The MNO provides a unique code to the resident for activation of the qualified
certificate.
b. User Registration/Certificate Activation. The purpose of the certificate activation
process is to create and activate a qualified certificate. Residents issue a request to
activate their qualified certificate using their mobile phone with the new SIM. The
Registration Authority (RA) initiates the signing request to a resident’s mobile device
to sign the personal data. The resident verifies the data and signs it by inputting
his/her device certificate activation code. The RA receives the personal data signed.
The RA enters additional data including the device certificate and forwards the request
for certification activation to a Certification Authority (CA). The CA creates and
activates a qualified certificate and publishes it.
c. Usage. The service provider requests identity service from a TSP and uses a Global
System for Mobile Communication (GSM) subscriber number and/or personal
identification code to identify the resident. The TSP generates the signature request
and sends it to the resident’s mobile phone. The resident signs the request by entering
his/her PIN. The TSP receives the signature data and checks its validity and that of the
certificate. The service provider receives the identity-related services from the TSP.
d. Termination. It is possible for the resident to stop using the mobile ID for several
reasons: e.g., the resident may not be using the service, a lost/compromised SSCD,
the qualified certificate expired, or the resident has violated the user-CA agreement.
In case of certificate revocation, the RA informs the CA of certification revocation, the
CA immediately revokes the certificate, and the certificate revocation list (CRL) is
updated. In case of SIM blocking due to loss or SIM damage, the device certificate is
taken out of the list of valid SSCDs available to all TSPs.
27. Interoperability. These auxiliary services have been designed to ensure that they can be
integrated with the existing and planned primary service delivery systems of service providers in
Estonia to enable functionalities such as eSignature, electronic authentication and document
encryption. The interoperability requirements were met by:
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a. Employment of standardized workflows. A standardized workflow was made possible
by adopting a common document format applicable to each service independent of
its provider (DigiDoc) and a central common public, service-rendering resource that
connected national databases.
b. Centrally provided unique identification number for each Estonian resident. A central
database of unique identification numbers allocated to each Estonian resident was
established providing authentication of the cardholder (i.e., the applicant or
signatory). A centralized infrastructure of a national, unique identification number for
each Estonian resident was employed to serve their authentication in electronic
processes.
c. Common public, service-rendering resource to connect national databases. To enable
identification and authentication for the various services via a corporate infrastructure,
a common public, service-rendering resource called X-Road was developed. Based on
the Internet, X-Road connects public databases and information systems, tools
centrally developed by the State (i.e., the State Portal Center) and the X-Road Center
(management and control of the gateway) with the Certification Center for the eID
cards.
d. Central single point of access to public services (eCitizen portal). The eID card of
citizens is just a secure token for various purposes to which access is provided by a
single point of entry: the eCitizen portal.
e. Standardized workflows using a uniform document format (DigiDoc). To digitally sign
documents, a communication model using standardized workflows in common
document format called DigiDoc was employed. The DigiDoc format is based on the
XML Advanced Electronic Signatures (XAdES) standard. The XAdES defines a format
that structurally enables storage of signed data, signature and security attributes
associated with eSignature; hence, it lends itself well to having a common
understanding.
28. The key organizational roles required for the wPKI/mobile ID operation are:
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a. Mobile Network Operator. The MNO provisions the new SIM to the resident when the
latter applies for mobile ID. The SIM includes SSCD function as per Directive 1993/93
EC51.
b. Registration Authority. The RA is responsible for the user registration and activation
of the mobile ID.
c. Certification Authority. The CA manages activation, suspension, and revocation of
certificates.
d. Trusted Service Provider. The TSP acts as the central interface in the wPKI
infrastructure. The main tasks include accepting authentication and signing
transactions from service providers, passing requests to mobile operators, and
checking certificate and signature validity.
e. Relying Party/Service Provider. The SP is a third party that is interested in
authentication and/or eSignature of the users.
29. The Estonian ID card scheme is the overall responsibility of the Estonian Governments’
Citizen and Migration Board (CMB). It is responsible for the issuance of identity documents to
citizens and alien residents as required by the governments’ National Identity Act. The CMB is the
institution that physically receives card application forms from residents.
30. Public-Private-Partnership. The process is managed through a tight public and private
partnership with two key private organizations. AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus (SK), which is a joint
venture formed in 2001 between two of Estonia’s largest banks (Hansapank, Eesti Ühispank), and
telecommunications organizations (Eesti Telefon and EMT) act as Certification Center. TRÜB Baltic
AS, a subsidiary of the TRÜB financial services organization and headquartered in Switzerland, is
the company that personalizes the card itself — physically and electronically. TRÜB receives the
card application from CMB and manufactures the card, printing and engraving the personal data
on the card, generating keys on the chip and embedding the certificates.
31. SK functions as the certification authority for the Estonian ID card project and manages a
complete range of associated electronic services, including Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP) directory service, Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) validation service, and other
certificate-related services. SK manages the end-user distribution channel through its parent
retail bank outlets. SK is responsible for the development and maintenance of the ID-software
51 SSCD Specification – Directive 1993/93 EC - http://eur-
lex.europa.eu/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&numdoc=31999L0093&model=guichett
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that is installed on the resident device for accessing eID services offered by the government. It is
similarly responsible for ID-software installation packages, instructions and video instruction that
is published on the government’s public portal. SK runs the call center and provides email support
services to the resident on behalf of the government.
32. For processing and controlling eSignatures, the following authorities and agencies are
relevant:
a. Certification Service Providers. According to the Estonian ESA, the CSPs certify actual
individuals identifiable by name and ID code. CSPs could be legal entities fulfilling
specific legal requirements.
b. Timestamping Service Providers. The ESA also regulates the work of TSPs). The
requirements for TSPs are generally the same as those for CSPs. According to the ESA,
a timestamp is simply a data unit that proves that certain data existed at a certain
moment.
33. The Estonian Information System Authority52 known as RIA coordinates the development
and administration of the State’s information system; it organizes activities related to information
security, and handles the security incidents that have occurred in Estonian computer networks.
RIA advises the providers of public services on how to manage their information systems as per
requirements, and monitors them. It is also responsible for providing technical support and
national shared IT Infrastructure and services to the government agency responsible for delivering
identity services.
34. ID-software. The government of Estonia provides the software that are to be installed on
the residents’ Internet-connected device (laptop, desktop, etc.). The software, collectively
referred to as ID-software, allows the residents to use their ID card electronically to access private
and government eServices, digitally sign documents, and encrypt documents for safe transfer.
The government provides on its public website53 the steps for installing the ID-software on the
device. During ID-software installation, three programs are installed on the computer:
a. ID-card Utility. The utility is used by residents to check the functioning of their ID-
card and the certificate validity, and to extend it when necessary, to change and
unblock PIN and PIN Unlock Key (PUK) codes, and to configure the @eesti.ee email
address.
52 Estonian Information System’s Authority - https://www.ria.ee/about-estonian-information-systems-authority/
53 Estonia government Web Site for installing ID-software - https://installer.id.ee/?lang=eng
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b. DigiDoc3 Client. This is used to sign digitally with the ID-card and mobile ID, to check
the validity of eSignatures, and open and save documents inside the signature
container. Digitally signed containers are files with .bdoc or .ddoc extensions.
c. DigiDoc3 Crypto. This enables residents to secure files for safe transfer using the ID-
card and to view secure documents (decrypt). The files are encrypted using the ID-
card’s authentication certificate and added to the secure container file with the .cdoc
extension.
d. Browser Plug-in. This is installed on the residents’ device when accessing the portal
for the first time. The plug-in requests for the residents’ certificate and the
corresponding PIN to authenticate their identity before allowing them access to the
service provider.
35. Web Portal. The portal is located at http://digidoc.sk.ee; it is available to all cardholders
free of charge. Its functions are similar to the client program — one may use it to generate and
verify eSignatures. In addition, one may use it to have a document signed by a number of people.
With a few clicks of the mouse, the user is able to designate the people whose signatures are
needed on the document, and they can all sign it on the same portal. Every user has a directory
of his/her documents that no one else sees; however, anyone can send documents for the user’s
signature.
36. SK, together with its partners, delivered the comprehensive eSignature architecture known
as DigiDoc54. It is a universal system for giving, processing and verifying eSignatures. It can be
connected to any new or existing piece of software. Its components are a stand-alone client
program, a web portal and a web service based on Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)55
enabling easy integration of the functionality of digital signing, signature verification, and
authentication with other information systems. The service is usable in different development
environments and platforms featuring SOAP 1.0 encoded support.
37. SK based the DigiDoc document format on the XML Signature (DSig) standard. In February
2002, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) published its extensions to
XML-DSig as ETSI TS 101 903, also known as XAdES56. DigiDoc document format is a profile of
54 DigiDoc Specification - http://www.sk.ee/upload/files/DigiDocService_spec_eng.pdf
55 SOAP – Simple Object Access Portal – http://www.w3.org/TR/soap/
56 XAdES - http://www.openxades.org
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XAdES, containing a subset of its proposed extension. The XAdES profile of XAdES-X-L (i.e.,
extended long term) is used in the DigiDoc system but “timemarks” are used instead of
“timestamps” and signing and certification validation time comes from the OCSP response. This
profile provides the following information on the signed document:
a. Certificate used for signing
b. Signing time
c. Place of signature
d. Signer role and resolution
e. Incorporated full certificate validity information within the signature
f. OCSP response
g. OCSP responder certificate
38. Based on the document format, a library was developed in the C programming language
that binds together the following:
a. DigiDoc document format
b. SK's OCSP validation service
c. Interfacing with the user's ID card using Windows' native CSP interface or cross
platform PKCS#11.
39. eCitizen Portal. The eID card of the resident is a secure token for providing eID services
on the single point of entry: the eCitizen portal. The eID card is used for identification purposes
at the eCitizen portal. After identification, the validity of the citizen’s certificates may be
confirmed using OCSP service; a timestamp is given to the eService application. Using X-Roads,
the Internet gateway, the application messages are securely exchanged.
40. In order to drive the adoption of eSignatures within the region, the availability of software
and technology to the parties looking to incorporate compatible applications was critical. The
government was not able to find a domestic generic application or implementation that could
fulfill this requirement. Still, it made the decision to not rely on a foreign software or technology
vendor to provide and guarantee support for a critical piece of national infrastructure. A reliance
on foreign suppliers could have detrimental impact on the country’s day-to-day functioning
going forward. Because of these considerations, a bespoke software model was developed
specifically to cater to Estonia and its eSignature constituents.
41. It is possible to verify signature validity without any additional external information; the
verifier may trust the issuer of the signer’s certificate and the OCSP responder certificate.
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42. Original files along with signatures, validation confirmations and certificates are
encapsulated within container with “SignedDoc” as the root element.
43. The DigiDoc system framework consists of base libraries, intermediate libraries, web
service and end-user applications.
a. Software Library. The DigiDoc library is available to all developers as a program library
in C programming language and as a Windows Component Object Model (COM). It can
be connected to any existing or new software. For instance, one could add DigiDoc
support to accounting software, document management system, web and intranet
applications, and so on.
b. OCSP Server. On the server side, DigiDoc provides an RFC2560-compliant OCSP
server, operating directly off the CA master certificate database and providing validity
confirmations to certificates and signatures.
c. In order to ensure realtime validity of the certificate, certificate validity information
may be obtained from a live database rather than from CRL and the time value in the
OCSP response may be the actual one. To achieve long-term validity of eSignatures, a
secure log system is employed within the model. All OCSP responses and changes in
certificate validity are securely logged to preserve eSignature validity.
44. DigiDoc Security Model. One of the most challenging issues in eSignature systems is the
question of validating a signature long after it was given. Often, the hassle of ensuring the validity
of a signer’s certificate at the time of signing is left to the verifiers. In DigiDoc based on
OpenXAdES, the proof of validity of the signer’s certificate is obtained at the time of signature
creation. This proof may be obtained in the format of the OCSP response from the standard OCSP
service and stored within the signed document.
45. DigiDoc service provides separate methods for mobile authentication and mobile signing,
namely MobileAuthenticate, MobileSign and MobileCreateSignature. All three methods accept
mobile ID users’ personal identification code and/or phone number as input parameter. Using
just the phone number for user identification is not recommended as mobile numbers are public
and may result into security issues. It is recommended that both phone number and personal
identification code be used since the latter is not public information and may be a safer option.
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46. Wireless Public Key Infrastructure57. Mobile ID is based on the wPKI specification that is
the wireless implementation of the PKI. With wPKI, mobile phone operates as a smart card reader
with display. The communication between the PC/service and the mobile phone goes through
mobile signing/authentication service on the phone and mobile gateway of the GSM operator.
47. The mobile gateway uses the Over-The-Air (OTA) technology58 to communicate and run
the applications on the SIM of the mobile phone without being connected physically to the card.
The DigiDoc service sends the authentication/signing request (wPKI Request59) to the back-end
system of the network operator that, in turn, sends the request to the OTA gateway/server. The
OTA gateway transforms the request into short messages and sends them onto a Short Message
Service Center (SMSC) that transmits them to the residents’ mobile phone. The OTA gateway gets
the service request using the OTA gateway API. The OTA gateway maintains the database of cards
issued and activated with details such as SIM vendor, the card’s identification number, the
International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and Mobile Station International Subscriber
Directory Number (MSISDN). The OTA gateway has a set of libraries that contains the formats to
use for each type of SIM that it uses for formatting the service request into a message that can
be understood by the residents’ phone. The OTA gateway sends the message to the SMSC using
the right parameters as described in GSM 03.48. The SMSC may send a message of a maximum
length of 160 alphanumeric characters to and from the mobile phone. If the mobile phone power
is off or has left the coverage area, the message is stored and offered back to the subscriber
when the mobile phone is powered on or has entered back into the coverage area of the network.
The communication between the SIM and the OTA gateway is done by SMS exchange using the
SMS channel.
48. The mobile phone should be Phase 2+ in the GSM standard60 and could have the SIM
Application Toolkit (STK)61 with the OTA services support compliant with the GSM standards62.
57 wPKI Specification - http://www.signature.lt/KK/wPKI-specification.pdf
58 Over-The-Air Technology - http://www.gemalto.com/techno/ota/
59 WPKI Mobile Transactions - http://wpki.eu/doku/lib/exe/fetch.php/wiki:baltic_wpki_standard_draft-0.3.pdf
60 GSM 11.11 Digital Cellular Telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Specification of the Subscriber Identity Module –
Mobile Equipment (SIM-ME) interface -
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gts/11/1111/05.03.00_60/gsmts_1111v050300p.pdf
61 SIM Application Toolkit - http://www.gemalto.com/techno/stk/
62 GSM 11.14 Digital Cellular Telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Specification of the SIM Application Toolkit for
Subscriber Identity Module – Mobile Equipment (SIM-ME) interface -
http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_gts/11/1114/05.04.00_60/gsmts_1114v050400p.pdf
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49. In Estonia today, usage of eID cards as a proof of identity is more common among
professionals and enthusiasts. This is due mainly to the time needed for people to change their
mindset, the lack of applications, initial technical glitches that discouraged some first-time users,
and the relative higher cost of ID card readers. The ID card is widely used as a token for
verification of valid eTickets in the public transport system and it are cheaper than paper ticket.
The eID function of the bank card is more frequently used than the ID card. As the use of eID
card is cost-effective to banks and assuring to citizens in terms of Internet security, economic
common sense may support the shift from bank cards to eID cards for public service applications.
50. The government of Estonia has taken the following measures to improve the adoption of
the eID by residents:
a. To encourage eID use among residents, the government has published on its public
portal the steps necessary to installing its ID-software on residents’ Internet-
connected devices. The video instructions for software installation have also been
uploaded to further guide residents.
b. The public portal also provides video instructions for digitally signing eDocuments
using the ID-card or mobile-ID using DigiDoc service.
c. A test service installed by the government for use by residents to check the
performance of their ID-Software and card reader, is working properly; it gives access
to eID services.
d. The government has also set up a call center and email support for residents needing
assistance with software installation and eID services.
e. The government provides the Digidoc63 and other services specification documents
that may be useful to service providers wishing to access the eSignature functionality
in their delivery applications.
III. Belgium
Official Web Site: http://eid.belgium.be/en/
1. Belgium has three statutory electronic identity documents: the eID for citizens over the
age of twelve, the kids-ID for children under twelve, and the foreigners’ card for foreigners living
in Belgium.
63 DigiDoc Service Specifications - http://www.sk.ee/upload/files/DigiDocService_spec_eng.pdf
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2. The identity card is the proof that the residents’ personal information has been entered
in the National Population Register in Belgium. The residents can use the ID card to prove their
nationality and identity. All the citizens of Belgium automatically receive an electronic identity
card at the age of twelve. They provided by the local registry office. The citizens above the age
of 15 years are required to carry the identity card at all the times.
3. In Belgium, the eID has been implemented using the electronic identity card. The Belgium
eID card is a smart card with a built-in chip. The chip contains authentication and signature
certificates along with the PIN for each certificate.
4. The eID card is used to deliver electronic identification and authentication, and eSignature
services. The authentication certificate is used to confirm the identity of residents at the time of
logging on to a website with the residents’ eID. The signature certificate enables the eSignature
for the residents. Residents are eligible to use their eSignature from the age of 18 years. Residents
go to local registry office to activate the signature certificate on the card.
5. The kids-ID using Hello Service64 provides kids the extra protection in case of emergency.
The service makes it possible to contact parents (or family, friends, neighbors, etc.) by phone if
a child is in difficulty. Once the service is activated, people who find a missing child could have a
number to call; the application automatically calls the number that has been specified. A user
may specify up to seven numbers. If no one answers, the call is automatically transferred to the
emergency number of Child Focus that is available 24 hours a day.
6. To use the eID with the government and private sector service providers, the resident
requires a computer with supported operating system and a card reader attached to the
computer.
7. The resident could have to install the eID software that enables the eID to be used on the
computer. The software recognizes the card in the card reader as an electronic identity card and
ensures that the data on the card’s chip are read.
8. The Federal Public Service for Information and Communication Technology (Fedict) has
developed simple software for supported operating system to install the eID software on the
64 Hello Service - http://www.halloouders.be/
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computer; it is called eID QuickInstall65. The software is available for download on the website of
the government of Belgium‘s public portal for eID66. Residents may install the software by
following onscreen instructions that show up by running the program. The software checks the
configuration of the computer and installs drivers for the card reader and eID software. On
successful installation the software, using the testing service67 provided by Fedict, reads the data
on the card to check if everything is working as designed. The software also provides the
mechanism to install regular updates to the software.
9. The eID works with a PIN code and PIN Unlock Key (PUK) code. The PIN code is issued by
the government and is found in the sealed letter from the local government when collecting the
eID. The PIN code is a 12-digit number and can be updated by the resident. The letter also
includes the PUK code. The resident is advised to visit the local registry office with the PIN and
PUK codes that could then be used to activate the microchip on the eID card with assistance from
staff. The PIN code is the personal code used by the resident each time an eID-based service
delivery application is accessed; it could also be used for issuing eSignature. The PUK code is only
for activating or unblocking the eID.
10. Fedict has set up its own online service desk to support residents in solving software
installation and usage problems. The residents may fill a contact form68 on the Fedict website to
report problems.
11. Federal Public Service Home Affairs along with Federal Public Service Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation and the Federal Police has set up free DOC STOP
service69 and the CheckDoc Service to protect the privacy of the data on the card and prevent
identity fraud. DOC STOP helps to avoid risks of fraudulent use as well the unfavorable financial
consequences. It enables residents to block the identity card immediately if it is lost or stolen.
The resident could have to call a toll-free DOC STOP number to report the card lost or stolen and
to have it blocked. The service is available 24 hours every day year-round.
65 QuickInstall software - http://eid.belgium.be/en/using_your_eid/installing_the_eid_software/
66 Belgium eID government public portal - http://eid.belgium.be/en/
67 eID Installation Testing Service - http://www.test.eid.belgium.be/
68 Fedict Service Desk Contact Form - http://eid.belgium.be/en/contact/contactform.jsp
69 Doc Stop Service - https://www.docstop.be/DocStop/docstop_en.jsp
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12. CheckDoc70 enables verification in realtime of the validity of the Belgian identity
documents; it also identifies stolen, lost, expired, invalid or never-used identity documents. To
use the service, the resident or the user organization has to fill in a form and access the website
with the user name and password provided on successful registration.
13. The government portal provides a list of eID-supported public and private sector
applications71.
14. Fedict has opted for Open-Source Software (OSS) and intensive collaboration with
developers. The source code for the eID initiatives is, therefore, available to interested parties
who may view the software and propose and/or make improvements. This cross-fertilization in
which experts worldwide make modifications, improves the stability and quality of the source
code. In line with this approach, Fedict has produced an eID Developers’ Guides72. They contain
guidelines for developing eID applications by means of examples.
15. Fedict is promoting the use of eID in both the public and private sector applications by
providing developers with eID building blocks73, the basic blocks of eID applications. It provides
services to the government departments in the integration of the eID into their own applications.
The services provided by Fedict are available on their public portal in the identification and
security74 section.
16. The eID building blocks includes:
a. eID-Software and eID Applet75. The eID software ensures the use of the eID on the
resident’s computer. The software provides the user interface and it recognizes the
card in the card reader as an electronic identity card. The source code is available as
an open source project76 and Fedict maintains an online mailing list and discussions
for developer support77.
70 Check Doc Service - https://www.checkdoc.be/CheckDoc/
71 Available eID Applications - http://eid.belgium.be/en/available_eid_applications/
72 Belgium eID Developers’ Guides - http://eid.belgium.be/en/binaries/UPD_Developers_Guide_tcm406-112228.pdf
73 Belgium eID Building Blocks - http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid-bouwstenen/
74 Identification & Security Section - http://www.fedict.belgium.be/en/identificatie_beveiliging/
75 Belgium eID Software and applet - http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid-
bouwstenen/eID_software/
76 Belgium eID Building Block Source Code - http://code.google.com/p/eid-mw/
77 Belgium Developers Help and Support - http://groups.google.com/group/eid-mw
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b. ESignature Service78. The ESS is a service that can be used by web applications to
apply or check a eSignature against an eID. ESS supports various document formats
and provides all the necessary interactions with the user. Signatures applied via the
ESS comply with XAdES specifications and European Directives 2009/767/EC. The
source code is available as an open source project79.
c. eID Identity Provider80. The eID identity provider allows a web application to be made
accessible using the eID. This building block contains all the functionalities needed to
correctly authenticate the user of an application with an eID. The source code is
available as an open-source project81.
d. Quick Key Toolset82. The EZ Key or Quick Key Toolset means that a Java smartcard can
behave like an eID. In this way, the EZ Key is opening the door to the future, when
electronic identity may be less dependent on possible carriers. The source code is
available as an open-source project83.
17. Fedict also provides an eID Software Development Kit84 to enable the developers to use
the content of the eID card from the desktop application. The Software Development Kit (SDK)
includes the eID Middleware85 and is based on Public-Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) #11.
18. Fedict86 is responsible for developing the software for the elD card. It defines and
implements the federal eGovernment strategy. It uses innovative information and communication
technology to help the various federal public services to improve their service portfolios. To this
end, Fedict tailors technology to meet the needs of the general public, business and civil servants.
78 Belgium ESignature Service - http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid-
bouwstenen/digital_signature_service/
79 Belgium DSS Source code - http://code.google.com/p/eid-dss
80 Belgium eID Identity Provider - http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid-
bouwstenen/eID_identity_provider/
81 Belgium eID Identity Provider Source Code - http://code.google.com/p/eid-idp
82 Belgium Quick Key tool set - http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid-
bouwstenen/quick_key_tool_set/
83 Belgium Quick Key tool set source code - http://code.google.com/p/eid-quick-key-toolset
84 Belgium eID Software Development Kit (SDK) -
http://eid.belgium.be/en/developing_eid_applications/eid_software_development_kit/
85 Belgium eID Middleware SDK 4.0 - http://code.google.com/p/eid-mw/wiki/SDK40
86 Fedict - http://www.fedict.belgium.be/en/over_fedict/
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i ISO 27001 - http://www.27000.org/iso-27001.htm
ii ISO 27002 - http://www.27000.org/iso-27002.htm
iii ISO 27003 - http://www.27000.org/iso-27003.htm
iv ISO 27004 - http://www.27000.org/iso-27004.htm
v ISO 27005 - http://www.27000.org/iso-27005.htm
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