One year after the introduction of the virtual eSignature, more than 10 000 persons have authenticated online at the eSignature website (www.eparaksts.lv), and there are currently around 5 000 smart card-based eSignature users. The number of smart cards issued has risen to almost twice that of 2010, the majority of the users being authorities and businesses; with the introduction of the virtual eSignature, the number of individuals making use of the smart card has decreased.
Compared to 2009 and 2010, there has been a substantial increase in the number of electronically signed and time-stamped documents in 2011. The monthly average of documents signed with an eSignature was 26 000 in 2009 and it doubled in 2010; this number reached over 67 000 a month in 2011. In addition, the number of time-stamped documents was 60 000 on average per month during the first half 2011; the number went up to over 73 000 during the second half of that year.
Similarly, the number of verifications performed on documents signed with the secure eSignature has increased three times compared to 2010 where a total of 1.31 million verifications were recorded - in 2011 this number was 3.82 million.
"2011 can undeniably be considered as the turning point in the usability of the eSignature," said Jānis Bokta, Chairman of the Board of LVRTC. Mr Bokta explained that with the introduction of the virtual eSignature on 1 February 2011, the eSignature has become an understandable and convenient tool for the majority of the population, and businesses find it more interesting too as it opens up opportunities for them to communicate officially with their customers and go through formalities remotely by signing documents electronically.
With the upcoming introduction of the electronic identity card, a third safe electronic signature carrier will become available to the public and thus broaden the usability scope of the eSignature. Free-of-additional charge authentication and secure eSignature certificates will be included in each eID car along with 120 time stamps. If the eID holder chooses not to use them, the certificates will remain inactive. Likewise, the eID holders who choose not to activate their certificates initially will nevertheless be able to so during the entire validity period of the card.
With the authentication certificates integrated in the eID card, the holders of the eID will be able to authenticate in online systems to access services provided by the central and local government authorities, private companies and the single state and local government services portal Latvija.lv.
The signature certificate with the time stamp can be used to sign various documents, including applications sent to state and local government authorities. Once the document is signed, it will be saved as 'eDoc', which is the conventional format for eDocuments in Latvia.
After the introduction of the eID card, there will be three secure eSignature carriers available in Latvia namely: the eID, the eSignature smart card, and the virtual eSignature for online use on the eSignature website. Users can choose one or more eSignature carriers according to their needs. The only authority issuing all types of eSignature in Latvia is LVRTC.
Further information:
- Original news article - eParaksts portal (in Latvian)
- Related ePractice news article - LV: Virtual eSignature - Remote application enabled for smart card-based eSignature holders
- Background information - ePractice eGovernment Factsheet for Latvia
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Quelle/Source: epractice, 05.03.2012
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