SkIDentity creates trust and avoids identity theft in the internet
The recent cases of millionfold identity theft[1] demonstrate the insecurity of password based authentication in the web. On the other side there are already very secure and user friendly alternatives for internet login, based on the German eID card (“Personalausweis”) and similar identity cards, such as the Estonian identity card (“ID-kaart”) or the Astrian (“e-card”) or German electronic health card (“elektronische Gesundheitskarte”) for example. Using SkIDentity, which has been developed within the scope of the "Trusted Cloud", it is now easy to use these eID cards for web based applications, which in turn prevents identity theft and creates trust.
SkIDentity pilot test launched at the a-i3/BSI symposium
The German Federal Ministry for Economic affairs and Energy (BMWi) supports the introduction of SkIDentity and the “Trusted Cloud” program, which aims at developing and testing innovative, secure, economically viable and legally admissible cloud computing services, with about 50 million Euro. In the context of the interdisciplinary symposium of the working group for identity protection in the internet (Arbeitsgruppe “Identitätsschutz im Internet”, a-i3), which proceeds at the Ruhr-University Bochum in collaboration with the German Federal Office for Information Security (“Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik”, BSI), the SkIDentity system was today presented to the participating experts. ”The innovations developed within the ‘Trusted Cloud’ program will soon be available for a broader user group”, states Dr. Heiko Roßnagel, Senior Researcher at Fraunhofer IAO. "As of now all interested organizations may apply for the SkIDentity pilot test." In this final project stage all public administrations, health insurance organizations, enterprises, associations, federations and all other service providers are invited to become part of the project to make the internet a little more secure.
Efficient substitute of written form for administrations and health insurances
The innovative SkIDentity service in particular supports the new German eID card and the German electronic health card. This enables administrations to use the electronic identification procedure according to § 18 of the German eID act (“Personalausweisgesetz”). As required by § 2 (3) of the German E-Government-Law ("Gesetz zur Förderung der elektronischen Verwaltung, E-Government-Gesetz”, EGovG) all federal authorities in Germany need to accept the German eID card by January 1st 2015. “Because of § 3a (2) of the German Administrative Procedure Act (“Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz”, VwVfG) it is not only possible to replace the written form using qualified electronic signatures, but in the meantime also using the eID functionality of the German identity card. In a similar manner § 36a of the first book of the German Social Security Code (Erstes Sozialgesetzbuch, SGB I) allows to replace the written form within the communication between health insurances and citizen by using the electronic health card for authentication”, explains Prof. Dr. Gerrit Hornung who holds the chair of public law and IT law at the University of Passau.
Security for enterprises by using of strong authentication as a Service
The corporate sector benefits from the innovations developed within the “Trusted Cloud” program as well, because the SkIDentity system does not only support national identity cards, but also several signature and bank cards as well as company ID cards. “Secure login methods are an important prerequisite for trustworthy business processes and cloud computing in the industrial sector", adds Dr. Detlef Hühnlein. “Based on SkIDentity it will soon be possible to purchase secure two factor authentication in form of a convenient cloud service."
About SkIDentity
The SkIDentity project is performed by an interdisciplinary team, which is coordinated by ecsec GmbH and comprises experts from ENX Association, Fraunhofer institutes for industrial engineering (IAO) and computer graphics (IGD), OpenLimit SignCubes GmbH, Ruhr University of Bochum, University of Passau, Urospace GmbH and Versicherungswirtschaftlicher Datendienst GmbH. In addition the SkIDentity team is supported by major associations and federations such as the Federal Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (Bundesverband Informationswirtschaft, Telekommunikation und neue Medien e.V., BITKOM), the German EuroCloud association (EuroCloud Deutschland_eco e.V.), the ProSTEP iViP association and TeleTrusT – IT Security Association Germany and well known enterprises such as DATEV eG, easy Login GmbH, media transfer AG, noris network AG, SAP AG and SiXFORM GmbH.
About the “Trusted Cloud” Program
The German Federal Ministry for Economic affairs and Energy (BMWi) supports through “Trusted Cloud” the development and testing of innovative, secure and legally valid cloud computing services with about 50 million Euro. Because the various project partners roughly bring in own resources of the same amount, the program has in total about 100 million Euro as its disposal. The “Trusted Cloud” technology program of the BMWi is part of the cloud computing initiative, which has been started by the BMWi in October 2010 together with its industrial and academic partners.
Contact:
Dr. Detlef Hühnlein
SkIDentity c/o ecsec GmbH
Sudetenstraße 16
96247 Michelau
Germany
Tel.: +49 9571-896479
E-Mail: skidentity@ecsec.de
