What is the certification programme?

The certification programme was initially designed to assess the compliance of secure documents issued by France, in particular with regard to the following three fundamental aspects:

 

1. Interoperability: By proving that the chip's usage (electronic passport, driving licence, eServices, etc.) complies with current standards.
2. Durability: By proving that its electrical and physical functionality has remained based on the constraints linked to the use of the document (mission profile) and the handling of its physical form over time.
3. Security: By proving that the chip and its environment are compliant with the security requirements in force for the field in question (in particular, compliance with the common security criteria).

The compliance of a secure electronic document is based on a series of tests derived from:

• the bodies of theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the most part
• and, in some cases, European bodies such as the Commission, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and theInternational Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The security aspects are qualified by the Agence Nationale de la Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information (ANSSI, the National Agency for Information System Security).

 

What is the role of the ANTS?

The ANTS determines the standards and test methods to be applied by the selected laboratories.

The tests are carried out by laboratories recognised by COFRAC (Comité Français d'Accréditation, which certifies compliance with standards) as being qualified in the field of the document and its application.

Once all the tests have been completed and passed, ANTS issues the certificate of conformity.

The ANTS certification programme is aimed at industry and government authorities.