Mobile ID service launched in Estonia by EMT
A new service, Mobile-ID (Mobiil-ID in Estonian) has been launched in Estonia last May by mobile operator EMT in cooperation with CA AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus.
The infosecurity 2009 initiative was launched on 23 May 2006 by the Look@World Foundation – gathering ten Estonian leading companies and established in 2001- and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications of Estonia. The initiative aims to considerably increase the number of Internet users in the country and to bring to 400 000 the number eID cards’ and Mobiil-IDs’ users by 2009. The parties have pledged 60 million Estonian Crowns over the course of three years to finance the initiative.
To use a Mobile-ID, the customer has to subscribe to the Mobile-ID service agreement with participating telecommunication services providers and change his phone’s SIM-card. The new SIM-card with added functionalities bears regular PIN-codes and PUK-codes as well as codes needed for identification over the Internet and for using digital signature.
Once subscribed, the user must activate his/her Mobile-ID. This can be done at www.id.ee using an eID-card, an ID-card’s PIN 1 code and an ID-card reader device. Activation is necessary for providing maximum security to the service, since it grants the user access to bank accounts and ability of signing legally binding documents. The security of the service is to be increased with the implementation of a next phase in cooperation with the Citizenship and Migration Board and various Mobile-ID activation methods are planned to be set-up in the future.
“Mobile-ID is a remarkable step in development of Estonia as innovative country – in the world we are at the frontline with this service. Already now, there is a great interest towards this service from different countries, foremost from European experts”, said Ain Järv, General Manager with AS Sertifitseerimiskeskus. “I am pleased that together with our partners from project Arvutikaitse 2009 we have created a service which furthers secure usage of e-services. Both ID-card and mobile phone are handy devices that most of us have with us at all times; and with these devices the risks of using e-services can be minimized to a great extent.”
Furthermore, where Latvia and Lithuania do not widely use the ID-card, “Mobile-ID has a potential of becoming a unified personal identification and digital signature service for all three Baltic countries.” added Mr. Järy. Indeed a forum has been created between the three countries with a view to agree on a unified technical standard, so as to allow for cross-boarder contracts to be eSigned.