Notes from SK's annual e-ID conference
At the Estonian Certification Center's (SK) annual conference. SK is the private company that is responsible for much of Estonia's electronic identity infrastructure.
1. Cross-border digital identity is poised to explode. Estonia has some green shoots in this area: start-ups offering interesting services, plans to give out Estonian e-ID to non-residents. We also have experts with the ability to go into other countries and set-up a national solution in a matter of months. I imagine that, once the EU adopts its new regulation on e-ID and trust services, things will heat up even more.
2. The Estonian e-ID ecosystem continues to mature and develop more and better commercial applications.
Arne Ansper and Kalev Pihl getting ready to talk.
Tartu University security researcher Arnis Paršovs talked about potential security problems in the Estonian e-ID. Things are actually fairly good, but we could have even more transparency.
Tiit Anmann talked about e-ID among Estonia's neighbors. Finland, Sweden, Latvia and Lithuania all have some of the most advanced and widely used national e-ID systems. Russia is also poised to boom. His company, Signwise, offers crossborder digital signature services.
Jana Krimpe and Arne Ansper described the success of Asan Imza, Azerbiajan's mobile-ID solution based on Estonian tech and processes. The Azeri m-ID now has tens of thousands of users, and they are aiming for hundreds of thousands in the next year. http://bestsolutions.az
Merike Jürilo of the Estonian Police and Border Guard described plans to start giving out e-ID to non-residents. This should have all sorts of useful applications. I can think of one personally - US-based supervisory council members of the Kister-Ritso Foundation (on whose board I serve) will be able to sign documents without needing a notary.
Liisa Lukin of SK discussed changes to the mobile ID process and chip that will make it more secure. Jürgen Niinre of EMT (Estonian Mobile Telephone) talked about their NFC mobile payments pilot.
Priit Salumaa of the startup Moon Cascade. Biometric ID using a combination of facial recognition, voice, challenge questions. Working with Estonian Mobile Phone
Katrin Laas-Mikko of SK presented an overview of Europeans' many different views of privacy. Even for something as simple as whether especially about something as simple as using identity code for citizens. Estoinans extremely trusting in both banks and govt.
Tarvi Martens looked at the e-voting state of play - 6 successful e-elections, most recently in October of this year, with over 133k voters.