These Protection Profiles (PP) are established by CEN/ISSS for use by the European Commission in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 9 of the Directive 1999/93/ec of the European parliament and of the council of 13 December 1999 on a Community framework for electronic signatures, also referred to as the 'Directive' in the remainder of the PP, as generally recognised standard for electronic-signature products in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

The intent of Protection Profile device type 1 is to specify functional and assurance requirements for the generation of the SCD in conformance with the Directive for secure signature-creation devices. The Protection Profile defines the security requirements of a SSCD for the generation of signature-creation data (SCD).

The intent of Protection Profile device type 2 and 3 is to specify functional and assurance requirements defined in the Directive for secure signature-creation devices (SSCD) which is the target of evaluation (TOE). The Protection Profile defines the security requirements of a SSCD for the generation of signature-creation data (SCD) and the creation of qualified electronic signatures. The TOE may implement additional functions and security requirements e.g. for editing and displaying the data to be signed (DTBS), but these additional functions and security requirements are not subject of this Protection Profile.