How Middle Eastern state government
secured its citizens
A Middle Eastern state had already successfully deployed a smart card based national ID scheme to citizens and residents. As part of a process of digital transformation, the government wished to enable citizens to access digital services directly from their own mobile devices. A key requirement was to simplify citizen access to services while maintaining the highest security standards.
The deployment in numbers
MyID helped Middle Eastern country take national ID from smart cards to citizen mobile devices
For years, the state's national identity scheme had rested on smart cards issued to citizens and residents, with MyID already in place as the credential management system behind that programme. As government services moved online, the smart card alone no longer matched how people wanted to interact, and issuing physical cards for every new digital service was neither fast nor cost effective. The country's existing national PKI, self-service kiosks and card based eID were assets the government wanted to build on rather than replace.
The question was how to carry the same trusted identity onto the phones citizens already own, keep issuance low cost, and give the government control over how each transaction is authenticated, all without weakening the assurance the smart card scheme had established.
The government specified strategic goals for the mobile national ID solution:
The government specified strategic goals for the mobile national ID solution:
Mobile
the ID should be contained within a government app and should work on any citizen mobile device.
PKI
a certificate from the existing national PKI should be used to identify citizens.
Low impact deployment
the issuance should be a low operational cost, reuse the existing infrastructure and bind the mobile ID to the existing smart card based eID.
Usage policy
the government wanted control over the use of an additional second authentication factor including PIN, fingerprint or facial ID.
ID provider
The government app should be able to provide a citizen authentication service to third parties such as banking or healthcare providers.
The existing MyID credential management system, already in place for smart card based national identities, was extended
The existing MyID credential management system, already in place for smart card based national identities, was extended to enable the delivery and usage of PKI based national identities on mobile devices.
Mobile SDK
the MyID mobile SDK was embedded within the government app, enabling ID usage on citizen iOS and Android devices.
PKI integration
the mobile SDK connects back to the MyID server, which is in turn connected to the national PKI, taking care of key generation and certificate delivery.
Low impact deployment
citizens authenticate themselves with their eID card at one of the existing citizen self-service kiosks. The mobile certificate collection is then triggered by scanning a QR code displayed on the kiosk.
Usage policy
the mobile SDK supports PIN, fingerprint and facial ID, and provides policy control enabling the government application to decide which can be used for which operation.
ID Provider
The mobile SDK provides a simple standards-based interface enabling third-party apps to call into the government app to identify a citizen on their behalf. Keeping the digitally signed authentication inside the government app maintains the security of the mobile ID and avoids sharing keys between applications.
The same trusted identity, now on citizens' own phones
MyID was successfully extended to incorporate mobile identity issuance and usage with the mobile SDK embedded in the government app on iOS and Android platforms. The programme has been live for over two years with millions of Mobile IDs now issued and in use.
Digital transformation
digital identities are a critical enabler of digital transformation programmes. Citizens are able to interact with cloud and mobile based government services simply and securely.
Secure
by using the gold standard of two-factor authentication security, PKI, the government can be sure that citizens interacting with digital services really are who they claim to be.
Futureproof
utilising the security capabilities built into the mobile devices such as secure key storage and biometric identification, avoiding proprietary hardware (such as a SIM) and designed to work with newer mobile operating systems.
Integrated
working with the infrastructure and systems already in place, MyID enabled the programme to be deployed quickly and with low risk. The APIs and SDKs provided with MyID enabled the government to take complete control of the look and feel of the solution.
The platform behind the deployment
Intercede is a cybersecurity software company and the digital identity experts. For over 25 years, Intercede has helped government agencies, defence programmes, financial institutions and enterprises deploy phishing-resistant digital identities at scale.
The MyID product family, MyID CMS, MyID MFA and MyID PSM, manages millions of credentials across more than 20 countries. Vendor-neutral architecture means MyID integrates with virtually any certificate authority, hardware security module or smart card manufacturer, without organisations replacing existing infrastructure.