Estonian Digital Signature Act

1
Estonian Digital Signature Act

• Kaidi Oone
• Legal Adviser
• Department of State Information Systems
• Estonian State Chancellery
• Kaidi.Oone_at_rk.ee
• http//www.riik.ee/riso/

2
The aim of the Act

• to give to digital signature the same legal
  effect as hand-written signature has
• i.e.
• to guarantee to digital documents the same value
  of proof as paper documents have

3
Elaboration of the Act

• April 1997 - the Commission was formed
• May 1998 - elaboration process started
• June 1999 - the Act was approved by the
  Government and sent to Riigikogu
• March 2000 - the Act was approved by Riigikogu
  and proclaimed by President
• December 15, 2000 - enforcement

4
Digital Signature Infrastructure

• Certificate holder
• Certification service (CS) provider
• Time-stamping service (TS) provider
• Certification Register
• Supervisor

5
Certificate holder

• ... can only be natural person
• ... the same legal effect as hand-written
  signature ...

6
CS and TS providers

• public limited companies
• private limited companies (share of capital over
  400 000 EEK)
• legal persons in public law
• state agencies determined by the Government

7
Certification Register

• to maintain records of service providers
• to ensure the comparability of the official time
  and order of time stamps
• to approve the public key of the responsible
  person of service providers and to determine the
  scope of use of that private key
• to guarantee the basis for supervision

8
Supervision

• Ministry of Road and Communication
• information systems audit
• enter premises and examine documents
• make inquiries
• issue a written caution
• issue a precept for a specified term
• initiate administrative offences matters
• decide the deletion from the Register

9
Implementation

• October 1, 2000 - enforcement of the procedure
  for the information systems audit
• December 15, 2000 - enforcement of the Act
• January 1, 2001 - enforcement of uniform bases
  for the document management procedures
• June 1, 2001 - full implementation of digital
  signature in Public Administration