Canadian digital credential provider Carillon has become the first firm that can issue Transportation Security Administration-compliant certificates to sign electronic boarding passes.
Carillon is pleased to announce that the Carillon Certificate Authority (CIS EC CA) can now issue digital certificates using elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) that are cross-certified to the US Government Federal Bridge PKI through CertiPath. Elliptic curve cryptography is particularly useful to encrypt data quickly, safely and with minimal impact on original file size.
Beginning this year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is requiring airlines flying to the United States to digitally sign and secure electronic boarding passes using ECC certificates that are cross-certified to the Federal Bridge. While other providers are offering incremental capabilities, Carillon’s new ECC certificates are the first to be fully compliant with the TSA regulation.
Although the e-boarding pass has been available to consumers since the mid 2000’s, the sophistication of threats to air travel and personal identity theft has necessitated enhanced security measures to this critical component.
Patrick Patterson, President and Chief PKI Architect at Carillon:
“Carillon has been providing innovative identity management solutions to the aerospace industry for more than a decade now, but this is a new frontier when it comes to securing the passenger’s personal information. We are glad to be at the forefront of this new TSA requirement.”
Understanding that technology alone is not a guarantee of trust, the TSA wanted the ECC certificates to be cross-certified with the US Government Federal Bridge PKI. Carillon has accomplished this via their cross-certification with the industry’s leading hub for trust management, CertiPath.
Jeff Nigriny, President at CertiPath:
“Digital identity has become an integral part of everyday life. CertiPath provides a trust fabric supporting digital certificates which securely enable everything from sensitive information transfer to avionics software to now, passenger boarding passes.”
Although ECC certificates and CertiPath have been around for a long time, Carillon is the first company to have their ECC certificate authority issuance be officially cross-certified by CertiPath. Carillon looks forward to helping companies sign up for this service and provide an extra layer of trust to such an important document, the electronic boarding pass.
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