Gemalto Receives Order for U.S. Electronic Passport

Gemalto Receives Order for U.S. Electronic Passport

August 04, 2006

    WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Gemalto
(Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO), a world leader in digital
security, announced today that the United States of America
Government Printing Office (GPO) placed its first order with
the company, following Gemalto's electronic passport
technology qualification completion. The GPO and U.S.
Department of State evaluated the Gemalto solution at their
testing facilities and confirmed it fully satisfies the
agency's requirements for privacy protection, security,
durability, manufacturing yield, and transaction speed and
communications performance. The GPO, on behalf of the U.S.
Department of State, plans to incorporate the electronic
capability in all new passports to be issued in 2007.  The
United States produced over ten million passports in 2005.

    (Photo: 
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060804/221930 )

    "This award comes at the end of Gemalto's
successful completion of an extensive qualification
process," commented Ernie Berger, president of Gemalto
North America. "Winning this contract gives us enormous
satisfaction and we look forward to delivering the first
electronic passports to U.S. citizens, as we fully support
the GPO in this essential global security initiative. These
new passports will greatly enhance the travel experience for
U.S. citizens by providing effective, efficient and rapid
passage through border control points with an additional
element of security."

    The Gemalto electronic passport (e-passport) technology
includes the company's highly secure operating system
software running in a large capacity contactless
microprocessor chip. The chip is embedded in a module that
is highly resistant to damage and then is integrated into
the passport booklet cover. Leveraging the company's 26
years of smart card experience, the Gemalto e-passport
solution has been designed to provide superior durability
and performance over the passport's expected 10-year life
span.  Gemalto's e-passport references include the Czech
Republic, Denmark, France, Norway, Portugal, Russia,
Singapore, Slovenia and Sweden.

    Background information

    To better protect travellers, streamline immigration
processes and improve the security of the passport booklet,
the U.S. Department of State and the GPO, which assembles
all U.S. passports, is issuing an electronic passport
booklet in accordance with the standards developed by the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an agency
of the United Nations.  Last year, ICAO adopted the chip
technology used in contactless smart cards as the standard
for electronic passports in order to add a facial biometric
and other security features to passport books.

    The computer chip in the passport will contain all the
information that is now printed on the document's data page
including a digitized photograph of the passport owner.  The
text data and the photograph can be read with a contactless
reader at a border entry point and the electronically
provided data can be compared to the information printed in
the passport at issuance.

    Not to be confused with RFID, secure personal
identification devices using contactless smart card
technology have built-in and active security and encryption
capabilities to protect information access and
communications. More than 30 nations worldwide have already
pledged to adopt passport technology that conforms to an
international standard for electronic identification data.

    About Gemalto

    Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is a leader in
digital security with pro forma 2005 annual revenues of
EUR1,7 billion ($2.2 billion), operations in 120 countries
and 11,000 employees including 1,500 R&D engineers. The
company's solutions make personal digital interactions
secure and easy in a world where everything of value - from
money to entertainment to identities -is increasingly
represented as bits and bytes communicated over networks.

    Gemalto thrives on creating and deploying secure
platforms, portable and secure forms of software in highly
personal objects like smart cards, SIMs, e-passports,
readers and tokens. More than a billion people worldwide
use the company's products and services for
telecommunications, banking, e-government, identity
management, multimedia content, digital rights management,
IT security and other applications.  Gemalto was formed in
June 2006 by the combination of Axalto and Gemplus
International S.A. For more information please visit
http://www.gemalto.com .

    For more information, please contact:

     Gemalto
     Media
     Emmanuelle Saby
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

     Investor Relations
     Stephane Bisseuil
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

     TBWA/Corporate
     Emlyn Korengold
     Tel:    [phone]
     Mobile: [phone]
     Email:  [e-mail]

SOURCE  Gemalto