Council Decision 2008/616/JHAShow full title

5.3. Security Standards and Data Protection

Three levels of security concerns have been considered and implemented.

5.3.1. Data Level

DNA profile data provided by each Member State have to be prepared in compliance with a common data protection standard, so that requesting Member States will receive an answer mainly to indicate HIT or NO-HIT along with an identification number in case of a HIT, which does not contain any personal information. The further investigation after the notification of a HIT will be conducted at bilateral level pursuant to the existing national legal and organisational regulations of the respective Member States' sites.

5.3.2. Communication Level

Messages containing DNA profile information (requesting and replying) will be encrypted by means of a state-of-the-art mechanism in conformity with open standards, such as s/MIME, before they are forwarded to the sites of other Member States.

5.3.3. Transmission Level

All encrypted messages containing DNA profile information will be forwarded onto other Member States' sites through a virtual private tunnelling system administered by a trusted network provider at the international level and the secure links to this tunnelling system under the national responsibility. This virtual private tunnelling system does not have a connection point with the open Internet.