Everything related to ID-card
More opportunities for Linux and Mac with new ID-card software
With the help of the public test version of the new ID-card software, users of Linux and Mac can now log in to web sites, sign documents, and change the PIN-codes of their ID-cards.
According to the deputy director of EIC, Kalle Arula, the new software lets the users of Linux and Mac use the possibilities of the ID-card, in addition to those using MS Windows. “Even though the software was launched recently and some web sites are just being adjusted to work with the new solution, it is now possible to sign and look at signed documents offline, manage one’s ID-card, and authenticate oneself online. The possibility of giving one’s signature online will increase by time – for that the owners of online portals, e.g. the bigger banks, must adjust their software.”
“While installing the new software, though, one must remember it is a public test version and thus the users might experience some problems with it. We advise MS Windows users to continue using the older version for now as we concentrated on developing the software for the systems that lacked any support for the ID-card,” Arula added.
With the new software, users of Linux and Max finally get a graphic utility as well as a document signing tool for their ID-cards. The software was requested by EIC and developed by OÜ Smartlink, the development was supported by the EU Regional Development Fund.
The new ID-card software can be downloaded from: https://id.eesti.ee
World record in digital signing
- Author:
- Aare Kirna
- Posted:
- Monday, 26.05.2008
- Topics:
- General
Estonian Informatics Centre announced a national awareness campaign for the ID card on May 22. This campaign will bring about a new world record: as many digital signatures to a single document as possible.
According to Riho Oks, Adviser at the Estonian Informatics Centre, digital signature is a unique solution in the entire world. „We are planning to set a world record in gathering digital signatures, and we will also present the record to the Guinness world records team for approval – if all goes well, then the participants can have their name entered in the Guinness Book of Records.“
Oks adds: „As the Estonian “Teeme ära!” (”Let’s do it!”) campaign gave Latvians and Lithuanians a reason to clean up their own forests too, so why not give them another goal – implement the digital signature there.“
The organisers of the campaign are involving all Estonians in this activity and they have set their goal on gathering at least 50,000 digital signatures. The campaign encourages all Estonians to make the first steps in secure use of the e-services and in using the digital signature. The ID card guarantees that the signature given by a person is falsification-proof and legally equal to the signature given by hand.
The campaign starts on May 22 and runs until the end of June. The world record can be attempted at the website www.id.ee/rekord The same website allows for voting and provides information about the ID card, also in the English and Russian languages.
If a person has not yet used his or her ID card electronically, then the record campaign gives several different opportunities to do so. There are information boxes in several Hansapank service halls, where educators help the future record owners in giving their digital signature and provide advice in questions related to use of the ID card
The campaign will be announced via TV, radio, Internet banners, and stickers on Tallegg and Fazer products.
The awareness campaign of electronic uses of the ID card is implemented within the framework of the European Union structural funds programme „Increasing the awareness of the information society“. The total volume of the programme is 50 million EEK and its activities will take place in 2007-2015.
EMT Launches the Mobiil-ID Service
- Author:
- Aare Kirna
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 02.05.2007
- Topics:
- Success story
A Mobiil-ID service was launched by the a joint effort of the Certification Centre and EMT, providing customers with a possibility to identify themselves by using a mobile telephone (for example, when logging onto an internet banking system or the Internet-based self service module of EMT) and issue a digital signature.
“It is virtually a successor of an ID-card in your mobile phone,” Tõnu Grünberg, EMT’s Executive Vice President in charge of Development and Technology, said. “As people carry their cell phones with them virtually all the time, the service gives them more freedom for personal identification and digital signing over the Internet.”
“The Mobiil-ID service is a big step in the overall development of Estonia as an innovative country – with this service, we are among the very first in the world. Experts from various countries, especially in Europe, have already indicated their great interest in the service,” said Ain Järv, the CEO of the Certification Centre. “I am glad to note that cooperation with our partners in the “Computer Protection 2009″ initiative has yielded in creation of a new service that contributes to safer use of electronic services. The ID-card and a mobile telephone are both handy, pocket sized items that people carry around most of the time and, with a little effort, they can be used for significantly decreasing the risks associated with the use of electronic services.”
“As there are no widespread ID-card standards in Latvia and Lithuania, the Mobile-ID has a great potential to become a pan-Baltic digital signature and personal identification service. We have created a forum, uniting partners from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which is likely to become the birthplace for a common technical standard. This would, for example, make it possible to sign contracts between companies in different countries by using digital signatures,” Järv added.
Similar to an ID-card, the Mobiil-ID enables the use of bigger daily limits in Estonia’s Internet banking systems, as since 2 May, the banks will limit the size of transactions carried out by means of code cards.
Contracts for use of the service created under the framework of the “Infosecurity 2009″ initiative can be entered into in sales offices of EMT and Elion. Initially, the service is available only for the clients of EMT.
In order to use the service, a client needs to enter into a contract for use of the Mobiil-ID service in a sales office of EMT or Elion, and replace his or her old SIM in the phone with a new one. Together with the new SIM with added functionality, a client gets the usual PIN and PUK keys plus additional codes needed for Internet-based personal identification and issuing of digital signatures.
The exchange of SIM cards as well as the use of the service is free of charge for clients of EMT until the end of 2007. Thereafter, the exchange of SIM cards will be charged the usual price of SIM replacement, and the service will be charged a monthly fee of 10 kroons, enabling the client to carry out an unlimited number of personal identification and digital signing transactions.
After signing the service contract, the Mobiil-ID service must be activated. It is possible at the Internet address www.id.ee, where a client needs to use his or her ID-card, its PIN1 code and a card reader.
Activation is needed for ensuring of maximum security, which is necessary, as the Mobiil-ID can be used for gaining an access to your bank accounts, for example, as well as for issuing a digital signature that has the same legal power as a handwritten signature.
In the next phase of the service, cooperation is planned with the Estonian Citizenship and Migration Board to find new possibilities for activation of the service in addition to the ID-card-based alternative.
The New Version of ID-card Software Supports Firefox
- Author:
- Aare Kirna
- Posted:
- Friday, 27.04.2007
- Topics:
- Software, Success story
The ID-card software now also supports the Mozilla Firefox web browser, enabling the users of the program to use different electronic services with their ID-cards, to issue a digital signature in various web-based applications and to digitally sign and encrypt e-mails with Mozilla Thunderbird.
The ID-card software for Firefox is available at https://installer.id.ee.
“Officially, the ID-card software only supported the Windows platform and the Internet Explorer web browser until now. Therefore, many Firefox users were forced to use the IE in order to enjoy the functionality of their ID-cards in the Internet. Safe use of such web services has now become possible for such users also with their favourite browser,” Urmo Keskel, the Product Manager of the Certification Centre said.
“Some 82% of computers in Estonia use Internet Explorer as the main web browser, whereas 16% of the computers in the country use Firefox. Therefore the new version of software meets the requirements of a vast majority of users of electronic services in Estonia,” Keskel added.
Martin Paljak, the Development Manager of OÜ Ideelabor, has a positive attitude towards the future: “IT security is an increasingly important task and implementation of the ID-card functionality in more widespread platforms is one of the means that help to achieve this task in the context of Estonia. I am glad to note that the users of our software now have an official support service and we continue our cooperation to contribute to the development of a more secure information society.”
The ID-card support for Firefox has been made by cooperation of the Certification Centre and OÜ Ideelabor.
More than 1 million ID cards have been issued in Estonia, therefore almost all adult citizens and all people residing here based on a residence permit have it. Approximately 50,000 people use the electronic functionality of their ID-cards. The number of such users has doubled within the last six months.
OÜ Ideelabor is a company, established in 2004, specialising on creation of different ID-card applications and provision of relating consultations and other services. Ideelabor has created basic ID-card software for Windows, Mac and Linux, whereas the software is based on open source code and downloadable for all users at no charge.
The Certification Centre (SK) is a state accredited provider of certification and time-stamping services. The areas of activity of SK cover the development of software for provision of certification and time-stamping services as well as development and operation of ticket and payment systems.
Friendly Priced ID-Card Readers Now Available For Notebooks
- Author:
- Aare Kirna
- Posted:
- Monday, 16.04.2007
- Topics:
- Hardware
Based on cooperation of the “Infosecurity 2009″ initiative of the Look@World (Vaata Maailma) Foundation and OMNIKEY, the first ID-card readers for notebook computers will hit the market in a near future. Presumably, the retail price of the readers will remain in the range of 400-500 kroons, which will amount to approximately half of the market price of such products today and even less for wholesale customers.
“The launching time of internal card readers should be appropriate, considering especially the business users. On 2 May, the daily limits of transactions carried out in Estonian internet banking systems by using code cards will decrease, and the banks advise their customers to use ID-cards for logging into their systems and managing transactions. In addition to added security, ID-cards provide users with access to Internet offices of all major banks in Estonia and the customers of several banks have no need to carry around many PIN calculators,” said Andres Aarma, the Marketing Manager of SK.
First, the internal card readers will become available in computer stores, including the online shops of MarkIT.ee and Zebra.ee, as well as outlets of Elion, K-Arvutisalong, Ordi, ML Arvutid and Mikromaailm. Customers who are interested in purchasing more than 100 units should consider sending their requests to info@sk.ee.
The range will include a PCMCIA model Omnikey CardMan 4040 and an Express model Omnikey CardMan 4321 ExpressCardâ„¢ 54 that can be used in more modern laptops. These models should be compatible with most PC notebooks used and sold in Estonia today if they are equipped with respective card slots. The card readers can be used in computers that run Windows and Linux operating systems.
Computers used at home or in otherwise stabile physical environments can also use external card readers with an USB cable – such readers have been available for less than 100 kroons since the beginning of the year.
“Already approximately 30,000 so called “everyone’s ID-card readers”, that were launched prior to the electronic elections held in February, have been sold so far during a period of a little more than two months. At the moment, Hansapank, SEB Eesti Ühispank, Elion and K-Arvutisalong are the greatest distributors of external card readers,” Aarma said.
More than 1 million ID cards have been issued in Estonia, therefore almost all adult citizens and all people residing here based on a residence permit have the card. Approximately 50,000 people use the electronic functionality of their ID-cards.
Model 4040, PCMIA-slot
Model 4321, Express-slot
New version of the ID.ee web
- Author:
- Mart Parve
- Posted:
- Thursday, 29.03.2007
- Topics:
- General
As you may have noticed, we have launched a new version of the ID-card web page. We have not made a beg deal out of it, as there is still a lot of work to be done with the web. However, a decision was made this week that the new page is ready for moving in. Naturally, the new page greatly features the same materials as the old one. We have however tried to make the texts shorter and more straightforward, aiming to increase their comprehensibility.
The ID-card Help Centre is introduced as a completely new feature. The Help Centre is a web-based self-help system where ID-card users can find answers to their questions as well as solutions to their problems. In case of failure to find help from automatic assistants, a user can contact our manned client service centre. You can find more information about the Help Centre by clicking on “Read Further” below.
The ID-blog is also a new feature. This is where we try to keep our readers posted with everything new and interesting, concerning the overall issues relating to ID-cards, electronic identity, the electronic government and general developments of information society. Read more
The Success Story of the Electronic Tax Board
- Author:
- Mart Parve
- Posted:
- Wednesday, 07.03.2007
- Topics:
- Finance, Services, State, Success story, Taxing
The graph on the side indicates the share of income tax returns, submitted by natural persons over the Internet during the recent years. As we see, the increase has been quite substantial. It is interesting to note that some 60% of 15-74 years old people use the Internet, according to Emor. Thus we can conclude that there is not a single Internet user left who has not submitted his or her return over the Internet.
The Number of Electronic Voters Tripled
- Author:
- Mart Parve
- Posted:
- , 07.03.2007
- Topics:
- E-voting, Services, State, Success story
30,243 people cast their votes electronically, amounting to 5.5% of the total electorate who participated in the elections.
The Reform Party won the electronic elections with 34.5 per cent. The Reform Party was followed by the Union of Pro Patria and Res Publica with 26.7 and the Social Democratic Party with 13.3 per cent. The Green Party collected 10.7, the Central Party 9.1 and the People’s Union 3.6 per cent of the votes cast electronically. The Christian Democrats received 1.1, the Constitution Party 0.4, the Independence Party 0.3, and the Left Party, the Russian Party in Estonia and the single candidates 0.1 per cent of electronic votes.
According to a representative of the Electoral Committee of the Republic, the number of voters who cast their votes electronically was originally greater, but 32 persons decided to vote again later and their electronic votes were therefore cancelled.
Less than 10,000 persons participated in the previous electronic elections for the local governments.
Graph – www.valimised.ee
The ID-Card Installation Software was Renewed
- Author:
- Mart Parve
- Posted:
- Tuesday, 06.02.2007
- Topics:
- Software
Under the framework of the “Infosecurity 2009� initiative, the ID-card installation software has received a new, more user friendly look and it is freely available in Estonian, Russian and English at https://installer.id.ee/.