IDA and the Cards & Personal Identification Technical Committee (CPITC) are organising the CEPAS and SSID InterFest events to encourage interoperable implementations of both specifications. There will be three rounds of tests, which will be conducted from January to May 2007.

The first round of CEPAS and SSID (Specification for Smart Card ID) tests was completed on 17 January 2007. Those who missed the first round are still welcomed to participate in the second and third rounds of tests.

The next tests are scheduled as follows:

SSID InterFest - Round 2

Testing Scope: Passive Reading of various SSID Data Groups without authentication

CEPAS InterFest - Round 2

Testing Scope : Basic testing of the CEPAS specifications.  (Test scripts to be distributed by NETS and LTA)

SSID InterFest – Round 3

Testing Scope : Verification of Security Object Data (E.g. Authentication of DG3)

CEPAS InterFest – Round 3

Testing Scope : Special application domain testing.  (CEPAS 2.0 and Transit)

More on CEPAS

CEPAS describes the technical requirements for an e-purse that can be used by different issuers and merchants. The vision of CEPAS is for Singaporeans to have a single multi-purpose stored value (MPSV) card for use all around Singapore for micro-payments. This includes transit (bus, MRT, LRT), taxi, motoring (ERP, parking), retail, and other services. CEPAS is a significant milestone for Singapore's micro-payment landscape.  A key pillar of the national ePayment infrastructure outlined in IDA's 10-year infocomm masterplan, iN2015, CEPAS is spearheaded by IDA and is a result of a collaboration by IDA with the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and the industry to develop a cashless nation-wide e-payment platform.  The other key collaborators are the CPITC under the Singapore IT Standards Committee (ITSC), Network for Electronic Transfers Singapore Pte Ltd (NETS), and EZ-Link Pte Ltd. CEPAS was gazetted by SPRING Singapore in January 2006 as SS 518.

More on SSID

SSID is a Singapore standard for identification and is based on the e-passport specifications developed by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation).  The purpose of SSID is to provide an open standard that will open up the opportunity for an application and reader to read ID cards from multiple issuers.  This will be a move from a situation of  "many types of cards, many types of readers" to "many types of cards, one type of reader / application software".  The standard specifies the data structure, security and access conditions for an identity smart card, and can also be used by devices such as hand held computing devices, watches and mobile phones. Like e-passports, this standard requires that all data be digitally signed so that data can be trusted. The SSID has been published by SPRING Singapore on Dec 2006.

Enquiries

Please contact:

Mr NGIN Hoon Tong
Consultant, Technology Direction
IDA Singapore
Tel: +65 6211 1349
Email: ngin_hoon_tong@ida.gov.sg

For more information on CPITC, please visit www.itsc.org.sg.