Signicat joins European taskforce to standardize digital identity proofing

Signicat’s Jon Ølnes has joined the European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI) taskforce to work with five other experts on developing European standards for identity proofing to scale Europe’s digital identity infrastructure across member states, the company announced.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute’s (ETSI) Technical Committee on Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures (ESI) is responsible with issuing standards for digital signatures and trust services. Signicat has been an active, contributing member.

End-user verification has been a top focus for the organization, which is why ETSI has started a Specialist Task Force (STF) made up of six experts who will work on establishing European standards in identity proofing. The taskforce is backed by the EU commission and started its activity in April 2020.

The team is led by Sylvie Lacroix (Sealed). The other five experts in the team are Rayissa Armata (IDnow), Armin Bauer (IDnow), Paloma Llenaza (Certicar), and Stephane Mouy (SGM Consulting Services). Signicat Product Manager Jon Ølnes is responsible with editing the standard ETSI TS 119 461 Electronic Signatures and Infrastructures (ESI); Policy and security requirements for trust service components providing identity proofing of trust service subjects which will be published in July 2021.

According to the terms of reference for the STF, existing standard on trust services only use generic requirements to address identity proofing, such as “physical presence” or “means which provide equivalent assurance as physical presence.” However, the terms and requirements are not clearly explained or defined which could make the process subjective. While identity proofing practices differ across member states, there is a strong need for remote identity proofing guidelines.

STF will focus on identity proofing for trust services and will be responsible with issuing qualified certificates. Identity proofing could be applied to electronic identity schemes (eIDs) and Know Your Customer (KYC) in a number of sectors, especially in financial services.

Signicat has recently purchased digital identity company Connectis to grow its share of European digital identity market.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  electronic-signature  |  Europe  |  identity proofing  |  identity verification  |  remote identity proofing  |  Signicat  |  standards