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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."
... is people. How many people are going to go for a dump, leaving their keycard on their desk? Practically everyone where I work wanders off at some point leaving their PC logged with their (Notes) mail running. This could lead to hours of fun. Similarly, passwords/phrases get shared, borrowed etc.
Unless you use biometrics (I don't generally leave my fingers on my desk when I go to lunch), the stupid-factor will always play a part. The legal status of digital signatures will only really be clarified when the first case comes to court with the defense: "someone else must have used my key".
(OT) Oh, and would people please learn to spell "definite". It's like "finite" with a "de" on the front (quickly checks for typos).
"Under the iron bridge, we fist" - The Smiths, Still Ill
Here in the U.S., for me anyway, the most common reason for me to have to sign something is when I pay with a credit card, yet when I purchase something online, no signature is required. This could be great if used by e-commerce companies to verify the person making the purchase is indeed who they say they are.
Slightly off topic, but why are the currencies given in Japanese yen in the article if it is hosted on an American site and about Germany?
The future isn't what it used to be.
Keeping track of 200k signatures will be a logistical nightmare? What the hell are you talking about? How many millions of credit and debit cards exist in the world? How many does a single bank issue? Cripe man. As for signing documents...that is just encryption. You have your public key off somewhere and keep the private key on a smart card. Your smart card would have an info file about you and contain your public and private keys (the private key being protected by a password or biometric key). You'd sign the document and add the signature as an attachment to a document. Somebody would get it and grab your public key from something as basic as an HTTP server and verify that the document they received was as you sent it. Easy to crack no. If you're using 128-bit encryption you're pretty set though it'd be even better to use larger keyspaces. Dnet's RC5-64 has been on since 1998 and still hasn't found the key. They're pumping through millions of keys per day. So easy to crack, no. Hard to maintain, no.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Well, it is! They just don't build new ones, and the existing nuclear plants are being phased out.
If they don't the Christ Democrats which are ultra conservatives who think GW Bush's enviromental policies are to compromising will scrap the whole thing.
Come on. The Christ Democrats are conservative, and I hope they don't win, but comparing their environmental politics with those of GWB?? Environmental support has always been very strong in germany, even with the Christ Democrats.
Maybe, because you're the only one, who does it? I've lived all my live in Germany, and I've used a checque only once! I got the money instantly... Who needs checques?
Unfortunately you're right with this one. May very well happen. On a side note: In the moment the US is pushing european countries to introduce biometrical finger prints on the IDs, threatening to require visas for imigration again...
Very unlikely! Privacy concerns have been very strong in Germany, I could never imaginge the government to let corporations access a (hypothetical) genetic database!