Austroads looks forward to interoperability with the Digital Trust Service beta

For the mobile driving license file (mDL), Austroads has launched the pre-production/beta version of its Digital Trust Service (DTS). A press release said the much-touted DTS represents “a significant advance in digital credential verification” that will “harmonize wallets and credentials not only nationally but also internationally.”

According to the release, the DTS uses the Verified Issuer Certificate Authority List (VICAL), a trusted public key list derived from the international standard ISO/IEC 18013-5. Well-known names on the list include Idemia, Thales, Veridos and various transport management authorities. Austroads says the use of a master list will help move digital credentialing toward international interoperability as it is taken up by other regulators, from the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration.

According to Chris Goh, National Harmonization Lead on Digital Identity at Austroads, “On a practical level, this means that someone from the US coming to Brisbane for the 2032 Olympics will have their mDL or other mutually trusted digital identities/credentials seamlessly verified can.” at a local pub and club without having to download an Australian app. We will trust the wallet of your choice in our ecosystem because we can verify with high confidence (as it is cryptographically verified) that the credentials were issued by a trusted authority.”

“The other advantage is that, unlike a data exchange, a trust service does not need to store data in a central repository because the exchanged keys do not contain any identifying information, making it secure for both trusting parties and customers/credential holders.”

Austroads will unveil the beta DTS at the 10th International Interoperability Test Event (IVC24 Interop) in Sydney this October.

Article topics

Australia | Austroads | digital ID | Digital Trust Service (DTS) | digital wallets | Driving license | Interoperability | mDL (mobile driving license) | VICAL (list of verified issuers and certification bodies)