Frankfurt, Berlin The federal government’s project to bring the digital identity card to the smartphone in a legally secure manner threatens to be postponed indefinitely. A delay that particularly annoys the banks. They had already prepared a digital account opening as an application example.
Specifically, it is the so-called “ID Wallet”, which also served as the basis for the pilot project of a digital driver’s license and a digital hotel check-in. After security concerns and overload problems, the app was taken off the market at the end of September in order to improve it.
After the relaunch was initially planned after a few weeks, the responsible Federal Chancellery postponed it to spring 2022. In the meantime, the federal government seems to have spoken out against the project, at least in favor of the planned digital account opening. The Handelsblatt learned this from financial circles. In order to make it possible to open an account with the digital identity card, the Money Laundering Act was specially adapted.
Instead of the ID wallet, the banks are now to wait for the “Smart eID” system, a second project by the federal government that is being overseen by the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The problem: The launch of this app, which was announced for December, has also been delayed. In addition, this “Smart eID” is currently only compatible with a few selected models from the manufacturer Samsung and is therefore controversial.
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Protest comes from the German banks and savings banks. You want to stick to the originally planned app for a digital wallet and call on the new federal government not to cancel the corresponding project. This emerges from a position paper from various banking associations as well as from Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank and ING, which is available to the Handelsblatt.
Banks want to link the digital account opening to the ID app
The financial industry associates “clear hopes” with the restart of the ecosystem, explain the financial institutions involved. In the second quarter of 2022, it would have been possible to open a fully digital account using the system – more convenient for customers than the video-ident process that has been common up to now. where you have to identify yourself via video and hold your ID card in the camera.
For the credit institutions, it is about the chance of opening accounts quickly and about a prestige project. In financial circles it is said that a new current account can be opened within three minutes. You could confirm your own identity very easily using the ID app.
The background to the dispute is that Germany has been struggling to introduce a digital identity for a long time and has lagged behind other countries. This means the possibility of legally compliant identification on the Internet. For almost a year it has been anchored in law that the identity card can also be stored in the mobile phone, also known as “Basis ID” in technical jargon. The electronic identity card is read into a dedicated app.
In addition, the financial institutions accuse the previous government of not having adequately informed them. The position paper states: “With regard to the envisaged public-private partnership, we underline that the project can only be successful if the decisions are made jointly and communicated openly, bindingly and on an equal footing.”
Tech companies are also working on systems for digital identity
Joint decisions on digital identities already seem to be a problem within the federal government, as representations from government circles suggest. A total of six federal authorities and the Federal Data Protection Officer are involved in three projects.
Upon request, the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance referred to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which currently does not consider opening an account with the basic ID to be realistic. “The steering committee of the interdepartmental project digital identities has decided to rely on the smart eID for cases with special security requirements, as it can be used to map a higher level of security in the short and medium term than the basic ID,” said the Ministry of the Interior .
The digital identity is a basic requirement for freeing the administration of fax machines and paper chaos and transferring them to the modern world. Citizens could, for example, use their smartphone to extend their identity card, apply for student loans or a passport – or identify themselves to open accounts and sign up for a new mobile phone contract.
The banks, but also other companies, are also under time pressure because US tech giants like Apple are working intensively on systems for digital identity. The federal government’s project should also offer a legally secure and transparent alternative to these models.
The federal government had also mobilized the economy in order to jointly implement various application examples. In addition to opening a digital account, this also included the activation of prepaid telecom contracts and company access management.
Criticism of security holes
So far, only digital hotel check-in has been implemented, although it has come under fire due to security concerns. Shortly before the start of the project, the Federal Office for Information Technology drew attention to some weaknesses in the app. IT security experts also criticized the situation heavily in some cases. After the disaster with the digital driver’s license, the app was then stopped.
One of the problems: the ID data is requested using a QR code. If a smartphone user reads this code, their stored personal data is retrieved. If fraudsters manage to change such a code, they can also view the ID data. The app did not provide for a control in which the “querying” entity also has to identify itself.
Of course, the banks also know this. The criticism is taken seriously. But they rely on getting the security problems under control. “We are actively involved in the improvement and further development of the ‘ID Wallet’, its architecture, the required security and the user experience,” they explain in the position paper.
In financial circles it is said that the account opening can be made sufficiently secure via the “ID Wallet”. Video-Ident is only a “bridging technology” that has its own weak points.
Although, according to IT specialists, attackers cannot do much with the data, this security gap caused considerable damage to the image for the first attempts at digital identity. One possible reason why the new federal government now seems to distance itself from the project.
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