UAE to Host the E-Passport Code Board Meeting in November
The United Arab Emirates, represented by the Ministry of Interior, will host the 18th Public Key Directory (PKD) board meeting on e-passport codes in Abu Dhabi in November 2013.
The ministry recently participated in the 17th version of the meeting, which was held in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco.
Major General Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi, Director General of Electronic Services and Telecommunications and Chairman of the Higher Committee on the E-Passport Project headed the ministry’s delegation.
Major General Al Raisi stressed the exchange of codes to ensure that the passports of individuals arriving and departing are authentic and valid.
The delegation also included Lt. Colonel Khalid Nasr Al Tai'e, Director of Electronic Auditing and Information Security, and Captain Hamid Obeid Al Zaabi, Chief of Information Security and Telecommunications Section at the Ministry of Interior.
The PKD board currently has 37 member countries. The number is continuously increasing. The organization is highly important due to the benefit it provides of raising security readiness levels by auditing the authenticity and validity of e-passport data for individuals when they enter or exit a country.
The International Civil Aviation Organization Public Key Directory (ICAO PKD) is a means to exchange e-certificate codes enabling effective verification of the main infrastructure of both public and private keys of e-passports.
The board was founded in 2007 and the UAE is the first Arab country to become a member. The UAE was chosen as a member among 15 countries that have the right to vote on board decisions. The Ministry of Interior, the representative of the UAE, started to exchange codes with member countries in September 2011.