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German Government Introduces Digital Signatures

Posted by timothy on from the weakest-link dept.

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."

2 of 210 comments (clear)

  1. A good next step by nsample · · Score: 5, Informative
    Regardless of your views on "net-widening" and "freedom" and "tracking" and the like, this is the next logical step for genuine security.

    Good security should consists of three parts:

    1. Something you have
    2. Something you know
    3. Something you are

    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.
  2. Re:Germany by Reinout · · Score: 5, Informative

    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