Korean airports upgrade access control with CIPURSE™ based security

All around the world, airports and aviation buildings are some of the most protected public environments. To further strengthen airport access control systems for its personnel, Korea Airports Corporation (KAC) has been implementing a new solution based on the CIPURSE™ security standard.Infineon Technologies AG (FSE: IFX / OTCQX: IFNNY) supplies the security chips for the electronic access control cards handed out to the staff. The new system is already in use in three of the 14 Korean civil aviation airports managed by KAC; additional airports are to follow successively.

“Particularly, for airport management and operations, security and safety of passengers and staff are paramount,” said Thomas Rosteck, Vice President at Infineon’s Chip Card & Security division. “CIPURSE is the most advanced and most comprehensive open security standard currently available. The market does not accept proprietary solutions anymore – open standards broadly accepted by the industry are a must to continuously improve security, flexibility and cost efficiency of access systems. CIPURSE is consequently the solution of choice for upgrading legacy systems”.

CIPURSE is an internationally supported open standard that allows to rapidly install access solutions which are particularly secure, interoperable and cost efficient. It is based on the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm which is also used by numerous governments to protect secret information. Migration from existing RFID solutions to the advanced CIPURSE security standard is smooth and easy.

Civil aviation security is a critical requirement under ICAO

Under Annex 17, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) measures requirements related to airport access control. Accordingly, identification must be established in respect of persons and vehicles to prevent unauthorized access to airside areas and security restricted areas. The identities of thousands of airport staff must be electronically established and are subject to security zoning.

Infineon chips are at the core of the new electronic access cards

KAC’s new access control cards use Infineon’s SLS 32TLC100 CIPURSE security controller with Common Criteria EAL5+ (high) certification.The chips offer transaction times far below industry’s standard transaction time of 0.2 seconds. As a result, users benefit from fast, easy and stable access to their working premises. Their personal data is securely stored on the chip. To access a specific area of the airport, the staff simply taps the card to the contactless reader at the door or gate. In a second step, the system runs a biometric authentication process before allowing entrance.

Infineon supplies a comprehensive portfolio of security chips for CIPURSE-based systems ranging from access to transport ticketing.