Pens will become a thing of the past

The electronic signature is of fundamental importance for the development of the electronic economy and the information society. In Poland, however, modern solutions ensuring the security of electronic communication have not yet become widespread. A hope for changing this state of affairs may be the Mobile Electronic Signature – the most convenient, most common, and cheapest method of electronic identification. Using the Internet in communication between companies, individuals, and institutions significantly reduces the costs of conducting business, accelerates and automates processes, and contributes to increasing the efficiency of economic activities. Electronic identification of communicating parties is a key issue. This need provided the impetus for creating legal and technological mechanisms that would allow for the creation of valid evidence of the parties’ declarations of intent in electronic commerce. The electronic signature meets these requirements through unambiguous identification of the parties, confidentiality of communication, and integrity of the transmitted data. The electronic signature is based on asymmetric cryptography, which uses two pairs of keys: private and public. These keys are linked by a mathematical relationship. The public key is available to everyone, while the private key is known only and exclusively to the person to whom it has been assigned. Most often, the private key is protected by a PIN and placed on a microprocessor card. We sign data with the private key, and the public key is used to verify the correctness of the signature. The person’s data, i.e., first name, last name, residential address, are assigned to the public key, creating a certificate that is certified by authorized institutions called certification authorities. On August 16, 2001, the Act on Electronic Signature came into force, equating the legal effects of an electronically affixed signature with the legal effects of a handwritten signature. The Act introduced technical and legal requirements for the use of an electronic signature. An important element of the Act is the definition of secure devices for protecting the private key.

It was assumed that these requirements are best met by a microprocessor card, which is inserted into a microprocessor card reader connected to a computer. The private key is protected by a PIN and only the card owner has access to it. However, despite the existence of legal and technological possibilities, the development of the electronic signature market has not been satisfactory so far. There are several reasons for this state of affairs. Firstly, certificates issued by certification authorities are expensive (the current price is around 500 PLN). A significant part of this amount is the value of the reader and the microprocessor card. Certification authorities do not lower prices because the demand for certificates is not large enough. Secondly, there are not many opportunities to use an electronic signature. Major service providers who could accept signed documents – banking and state administration – are not eager to prepare their systems to support the electronic signature. Thirdly, obtaining a certificate is not easy.