Berlin It came as a shock to health insurance companies and all patients who trusted that their health data was securely stored in an electronic file. The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) exposed a security gap in the digital identification procedure via video (Video-Ident), which is intended to check legitimate access to digital patient files.
The result: the procedure was initially banned for the health insurance companies.
The concern, which can also be heard from circles in the federal government, is that the digital identification process must also be stopped for other areas – for example for opening accounts or for mobile phone contracts. That would be a big problem for many sectors of the economy, because there is still no alternative to video identification, which is actually only considered a bridging technology.
Bringing “digital identities” to mobile phones or computers with legal certainty was once an ambitious project of the federal government. The goal was to offer the digital ID card, driver’s license and other ID documents digitally before the market was taken over by American tech companies such as Apple and Google.
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But after a few failed attempts, the question now arises as to how things can continue at all. It is unclear when the projects that have already started will deliver results. According to research by the Handelsblatt, there are considerations of relaunching the project. The pressure to finally deliver with digital identities is now likely to increase enormously as a result of the video ident incidents.
Two approaches, neither of which work yet
So far, the digital identity card only works with a dedicated card reader or certain smartphone versions and a personal identification number (PIN). A cumbersome procedure, which is also only possible for selected services in some municipalities and is hardly used by the citizens.
It has long been clear that another, more practicable solution was needed – above all to modernize the backward German administration. The Bavarian Minister of State for Digital Affairs, Judith Gerlach, calls digital identities a “Gordian knot” that needs to be cut in order to advance the administration digitally.
Therefore, the last federal government worked on two different solutions: an offshoot of the ID card on the smartphone (Smart eID) and a digital wallet based on blockchain (ID Wallet). But disillusionment has long since returned to both projects.
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The digital identity card, which would only have worked on the most modern Samsung smartphones, was promised to citizens in December last year. However, it has still not been introduced. On request, the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) reported that the “Smart eID” was already being tested successfully, but the date of the public launch was not yet set.
The second project, the ID Wallet, started shortly before the federal elections in September with two pilot projects for digital hotel check-in and an app for digital driving licenses. However, the digital identity wallet was postponed indefinitely a few days after the election due to security concerns and capacity issues.
The start of other planned pilot projects, such as a digital prepaid mobile phone contract, was delayed further and further; At the moment, the official website is still talking about “October 2021” to “beginning of 2022” – so this deadline has already been broken.
The economy is now getting involved
According to information from government circles, the ID wallet project initiated by the previous government should now do without the initially planned blockchain approach – a process that is used for digital currencies, for example. The digital prepaid contract and the digital driving license are now to serve as pilot projects for the application for an EU project to test a European ID wallet.
According to a government spokesman, the identity project has cost around 20 million euros so far. The Ministry of the Interior points out that large parts of the project are “open source” and can therefore also be used outside of the project.
Now, after all the previous attempts without results, there could be a new attempt. The Handelsblatt learned from financial circles that banks and other companies are ready to work together with the federal government in a public-private partnership (PPP) on the digital identities project. “We would be willing to work with the state on technological solutions,” a financial source said. In the foreseeable future you will need a different technology than video identification.
The fear in the economy: If the projects are left to the BMI and the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), the result will always be “risk-averse”. As with the current digital ID card, super secure, but hardly practical.
A gateway for the big tech companies like Apple and Google, which are themselves working flat out on digital proof of identity. Working together with the companies would bring the desired range for the digital ID card relatively quickly. However, this would also result in a further dependency on the company – a painful experience that the banks already had to go through with the smartphone payment project.
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