The pan-European eIDAS Regulation came into force on 1 July. It regulates the trust services necessary for electronic transactions on the European internal market, and sets out the list of qualified trust service providers. Certification Centre is one of the first companies in Europe to be entered in this list.

Since the eIDAS Regulation entered into force on 1 July 2016, Certification Centre (SK) has been entered in the trust service list as a qualified provider of electronic time-stamping service, as well as service provider of e-seal and e-signature certificates. In order to be entered in the trust service list, a service provider must fulfil strict requirements and pass a conformity assessment procedure under the eIDAS Regulation and standards.

“We are one of the first in Europe to be listed as a qualified trust service provider. All hopefuls must go through a regular and independent conformity assessment procedure under the eIDAS Regulation and standards. We have passed all of the necessary assessment procedures successfully and are very proud of our achievements so far. To be entered in this list is a further confirmation that the services offered by The Certification Centre conform to the highest standards,” said the Quality Manager of SK Katrin Laas-Mikko.

The purpose of the eIDAS Regulation is to facilitate the use of cross-border e-services and to raise the level of trust in the digital environment to being the same as the level of consumer trust in the physical world. Doing so by introducing common principles for public authorities in Europe on recognising electronic identities and digital signatures, and by ensuring the comparability, recognition and common principles of the trust services necessary for the development of cross-border digital economy. The Regulation is first and foremost, directed at public digital services. Under the Regulation, all of the countries have to recognise the rules in a uniform way as part of their national law, and also apply these.

Trust services are necessary for secure transactions in the digital world, such as providing and verifying e-signatures. E-seals confirm the integrity of digital documents or data, and attest that the documents or the data received electronically really came from the institution that sent these. Through time-stamping service, SK issues time stamps to confirm that certain data in the document existed at a specific moment.

The Certification Centre is an accredited provider of certification and time-stamping services, and a developer and operator of the software linked to these services. SK issues certificates for the identity documents of the Republic of Estonia (ID-card, Mobile-ID, residence permit, Digi-ID, and e-resident’s Digi-ID). SK’s services allow individuals and entities of various nationalities to log in to e-services and provide e-signatures.

Previous Next