Identity card with a chip: The online trading will be safer.
HB BERLIN. When it comes to passwords and pin numbers, including the Interior Minister is uncertain. "I do not know whether a more than three or four PINs to remember really. In three or four, it stops with me, "admits the CDU politician Thomas de Maizière. The new electronic identity card is to eliminate the tangle of personal pins and passwords and bring more security – especially when doing business on the web. The new card will be from 1 Introduced in November in Germany. On Thursday put him in business and politics in Berlin.
The pass is valid for ten years as its predecessor, but comes in credit card format and has a number of additional functions that the citizens can turn off-or. And he is clearly more expensive: instead of eight will cost € piece of plastic is usually € 28.80.
In the new identity card in credit card format with a chip, with the new card is the feeling of online statements (eID function) is possible. And finally, future contracts, applications and documents will be signed online with a digital signature. The ID card is "a small computer that can do much," says de Maizière. Anyone who wants to can to immortalize his fingerprints on the chip, which can then be read only by State agencies.
The Federal Data Protection Peter Schaar, but advises against it. He fears that sensitive information is then it could end up in some key files, although this is not provided.
Also among the card Bundesbürgerist controversial. Only one in two will the new ID card: 46 percent approve of the introduction, 45 percent opposed, as a survey of the industry association Bitkom found.
Citizens and security experts have been complaining for years about the fact that with the advent of the Internet, fraud is increasing in the global network. At the best known is the so-called phishing, spy on the personal data and the perpetrators Tan numbers for online banking. As the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office in Berlin, Joerg Ziercke, said a few weeks ago, the phishing cases showed a decline in 2008, then increased again last year. While the programs have been spying on the data previously distributed by mail, most victims of the malicious software starting today on an infected pages on the Internet.
This is set to change with the new identity card. "Phishing is a threat to be yesterday," said Andreas Reisen, who is responsible as Head of Unit, Federal Ministry of the Interior for the new ID card. The condition is that the user has a card reader for reading the data to his computer and its software. The user receives his identity card a six-digit PIN. Both together – the data and the PIN – should allow unambiguous identification.
Instead of a cumbersome Login with username and password in the future just click on "register with a new identity." The lengthy form filling eliminated. Instead, the card is inserted into a reader, which will continue to cost in the simple execution of ten euros.
This eID feature of the card may or may not be activated. It can in principle be used only from the age of 16. Who is using his new identity, the eID can be the function either at the local public office or on the 0180 / 1 33 33 33 block.
Companies and authorities must identify themselves in the future. "Whoever wants to know from me who I am, I must first say who he is," says de Maizière.Der Minister considers the new identity card for the "most secure electronic identity card, which is available on the market."
The danger that can result from a careless use of the new cards, do not underestimate, however, warns against the Fraunhofer Institute. "The six-digit PIN (the card) is an important link in the security chain," says Jens Fromm, an expert in Open Communication. People should not write their number on the card – as many do today with the pin still fatally for their debit card.
Critics such as the Left politicians for Jan Korte of the new ID card unnecessary. It is known that there can be no absolute certainty. "And no one today can exclude with absolute certainty that arise from an electronic identity management (with the new identity card) is not entirely new threats to security and privacy."
Tags: advent of the internet, internet fraud, digital signature, electronic identity, peter schaar
