Malaysia: New ID cards secured by Infineon

Infineon Technologies is supplying the security chips for Malaysia’s new national electronic identity cards. Popularly known as ‘MyKad’, the new generation smart card features Infineon`s SLE 78 security controller with Infineon’s award-winning ‘Integrity Guard’ security technology.

Malaysia takes advantage of this new security technology combined with SOLID FLASH™ for fast deployment capability. 

MyKad is a multi-application national electronic identity card, including biometric identification, which will allow the implementation of numerous additional functions such as Driving License, Health, ATM, eSignature and eGovernment services. In the past years, Malaysia issued approximately two million new identity cards each year. Identity cards are used for many years and are subject to intense wear. This is why they must meet specific high requirements. In particular, the bearer’s personal data should be secured during the entire life of the card.

“We have already proven the robustness and reliability of our security chips for identity documents in many projects worldwide,” says Dr. Stefan Hofschen, President of the Division Chip Card & Security at Infineon Technologies. “The MyKad program clearly follows the industrial trend to move from MASK ROM based smart card ICs towards secure and certified state-of-the-art flash controllers like Infineon’s SOLID FLASH products. Therewith we can fulfill the future challenges of government and payment projects while providing a competitive total cost of ownership.”

The utilized Infineon SOLID FLASH product combines the highest level of flexibility provided by dedicated Non Volatile Memory (Flash, EEPROM) technologies with outstanding reliability and a sophisticated security concept. The security certified Flash product allows a faster reaction to market changes through short lead times and flexible product usage, and offers many advantages in logistics, development and throughout the certification process. A full range of SOLID FLASH products are Common Criteria certified by the BSI (Federal Office for Security in Information Technology) in Germany as well as type approved by EMVCo making it the choice for many applications while keeping full flexibility for upcoming changes. 

MyKad also uses Infineon’s Integrity Guard security technology. For identification documents with high demands on security and robustness, it offers long lasting security with encrypted Dual CPU-core, setting a new benchmark for secure electronic documents. With this technology, data is encrypted along the entire data path during processing. The security controller core has two processing units, constantly checking each other’s correct function by utilizing sophisticated error detection. Infineon’s highly secure SLE 78 product family with Integrity Guard is used in all important eGovernment applications, such as the electronic health card, the electronic identification card and in residence permits with biometric data.

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