Trustworthy electronic identities can now be used with mobile devices
With the SkIDentity technology (https://skidentity.com), which was developed in the “Trusted Cloud” program supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) and the bridge between eID and cloud, which has been officially authorised by the German Federal Administrative Office (BVA) (see http://blog.trusted-cloud.de), various electronic identity cards like the German eID (“Elektronischer Personalausweis”), the Austrian social insurance card (e-card), the Estonian eID as well as several signature and banking cards from D-Trust, DATEV, S-Trust and GAD can easily be used in cloud and web applications. During the authentication SkIDentity creates cryptographically secured “Cloud Identities”, which can be used for pseudonymous authentication or self-determined identity proofing. These “Cloud Identities” can be autonomously managed by the user and can from now on also be transferred securely to almost any smartphone.
Comfortable integration of electronic identities via convenient web application
Until now the integration of eID cards with cloud and web applications was relatively complex. With the novel SkIDentity-Service however this task however becomes very easy. Due to the consequent usage of internationally accepted standards all compliant identity-, banking- and signature-cards as well as authentication services and online services can be used in the SkIDentity-System without any additional integration efforts. With the novel SkIDentity management service, which was introduced at the “Trusted Cloud” congress, electronic Identities which are to be accepted in an online service can now easily be configured using a convenient web application. Potentially interested providers of online services can now register at https://skidentity.com/service in order to receive their personal electronic copy of the project anthology („Vertrauenswürdige Identitäten für die Cloud: Arbeiten und Ergebnisse des SkIDentity-Projekts“) published by Fraunhofer Verlag.
“SkIDentity allows that trustworthy electronic identities can now be integrated using a convenient web application used in mobile applications“, explains Dr. Detlef Hühnlein, CEO of ecsec GmbH. „It is great that the German eID has finally reached the cloud. It can act as a trust anchor and significantly improve security there.”
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.
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Contact:
Dr. Detlef Hühnlein
SkIDentity c/o ecsec GmbH
Sudetenstraße 16
96247 Michelau
Germany
E-Mail: skidentity@ecsec.de
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