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German Government Introduces Digital Signatures
bertvl writes: "From this
article on CNN: Germany's federal government is introducing electronic signatures for its employees, a step it hopes will help make the security procedure generally accepted in the country. More than 200,000 employees of ministries and agencies will be able to sign electronic documents using a chip card with an encrypted key, giving them the same legal weight as paper documents with a handwritten signature, the federal Cabinet said in a statement Thursday."
Good security should consists of three parts:
Now it seems the German government has two out of the three (know+have), which is one (or two!) better than most of the world. Now all they need are retinal scanners, and they're set!
Like I said, it may not be a Good Thing® they end up with, but whatever it is... it's a lot closer to "secure" than anything else.
It is not really a innovative step by the German government alone. All EU member states have to transform the EU directive on e-commerce into national law. According to the directive the member states have to make sure that most contracts (very few exceptions) can be closed online. The German government just tries to extend this rule to public law.
Line 9: Argument of type SIGNATURE expected.
What I want to know is: [...] What is the state of Linux use in Germany?
Germany is home to an awful lot of linux development. SuSE is from Germany, as an example. The government is also active, sponsoring the GnuPG pgp-like developement. Top government officials (like "secretary of state") opening the LinuxTag for 2 or 3 years in a row now.
There's a lot of debate currently on whether the Reichstag (the German parliament) should switch to linux. It's kinda funny, even people from the same party are disagreeing, one proclaiming the gospel of linux, the other (being half sponsored by Redmond) denouncing it as a threath to Germany's software industry as a whole :-)
The best tip is to look at heise. They also've got english news now. Look at what's going on there. That 'heise' publishes two of Europe's best-regarded computer magazines, one for home-use (c't), one for professional use (iX).
Reinout
Reinout van Rees
You know Germany seems to be one of the technological world leaders.
They're certainly no losers, but the general public's attitude has been rather anti-tech these past years.
They just decided to phase out all nuclear power in favor of wind power by the year's end and it looks like they'll do it.
Says who? Never heard about that one. Wouldn't be possible anyway, there's by far not enough wind power available (or to be made available) to come even close to replacing nuclear power, and certainly not by the end of the year. Sure, the green party hates anything that's got "nuclear" in it's name, but that's hardly rational. If I'd got moderator points, I'd have modded you a troll for this point.
The acceptance of digital signitures is a huge step in helping the internet reach its full potential for changing the way we live our lives. Germany is taking this first step.
Maybe. It's unfortunate, though, that they chose a system that's already been broken. IIRC they took quite some heat for it from clued guys, but they went ahead anyway.
What is the state of Linux use in Germany?
AFAIK, it's one of the highest levels on this planet. SuSE's from Nuernberg, and AFAIK they make more money than Red Hat.
I ask all this because I'm looking at an offer for a research position at the Max Planck Institute in Munich (I'm sorry _Munchen_:).
Good luck there.