Small and Medium Enterprises form the backbone of any economy. In the European Union, SMEs represent 99% of all businesses and account for an astounding 85% of job growth. Providing the best environment for these SMEs to thrive and prosper thus becomes pivotal for any country. The EU has a tradition of promoting entrepreneurship and leads the pack when it comes to ease of doing business, access to finance, having a strong legal framework, a robust regulatory environment and a variety of other support structures. 

In Part 2 of our series on the success of electronic IDs in the Nordic countries, we looked at what has made these schemes so successful with near universal adoption rates. We continue along the same vein in this final piece on collaboration. Collaboration comes across as the key theme when analyzing what made the Scandinavian eID initiatives click. It was such a key factor leading to the success of eID schemes in the Nordics, that it deserves a brief case study in its own right.

National digital signature schemes that utilize remote signing technology can achieve very high usage rates, whereas Trust Service Providers and Banks (who might use the schemes) also tend to reach millions if not tens of millions of signatures per year - with peaks exceeding hundreds per minute. In this article we discuss the key elements for designing a scalable architecture to deliver a digital signing service under a high Service Level Agreement (SLA) with high throughput and low latency.

In our previous article on eID schemes in the Nordic countries, we looked at some of the data showcasing the remarkable adoption and engagement rates for such schemes. A robust electronic identification and signature mechanism provides the foundation over which digital service delivery platforms are built.

The Nordic countries have led the world in digital adoption and innovation for some time now. They often top most digital competitiveness rankings like the 2017 Digital Evolution Index.

To combat fraud in digital identities and provide guidelines for digital authentication, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) updated its Digital Identity Guidelines in June 2017 and has provided a digital identity model that represents their updated guidelines with technologies and architectures that are currently available. This article describes the NIST model and compares NIST’s US-minded approach with the European eIDAS-Regulation and its legal framework.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at the objectives or motives behind having an eIDAS enabled digital on-boarding process. In Part 2, we look at the actual process that is followed currently and a few examples of the nifty tools and tricks that some banks, financial institutions and even independent app developers are using to digitize the customer on-boarding process. The process can be further simplified using tools provided by eIDAS for electronic identification and authentication.

The ultimate aim of regulations like eIDAS is the creation of a true Digital Single Market (DSM). eIDAS plays its role by providing the necessary authentication and trust service tools to address the needs of the DSM. In order to succeed, however, it is necessary to know what exactly each stakeholder in that market needs.

With each passing year, the volume of international trade in goods and services keeps rising. With all of this trade, however, comes an associated cost. This not only involves some unavoidable components like shipping, but also costs incurred due to inefficiency in other systems like customs clearances and trust between the trading parties.