OECD Peer Review of E-Government in Denmark - ePractice.eu

Denmark – something that could be achieved through “mutual recognition” of public and privately
issued signatures. Government is willing to recognise privately issued signatures as long as they
comply (as appropriate) with the standards specified in Denmark’s electronic signature legislation.
However, it appears that for the foreseeable future it will be using the PKI and digital certificates
provided by TDC.
Implementing the PKI has brought some challenges. Free, software-based, digital signatures with
passwords linked to CRS numbers were provided to individuals to install and use on their PCs. While
this process is relatively straightforward, the issuing of so-called “employee signatures” is more
difficult due to the need to establish the actual and legal relationship between employees and their
employers as part of the chain for issuing and managing digital signatures. Achieving this has required
a complex process of installing special software on employers’ information systems, and
implementation of a fee system for employers who wish to have more than 10 employee signatures
issued to their staff. This fact, along with some user-education issues and technical difficulties
experienced in deploying and managing digital signatures across the diverse platform of PCs in use in
Danish homes and businesses, contributed to slower than desired uptake of digital signatures during
2004 – especially among businesses, for which more PKI-enabled services are currently available. To
counter this, in late 2004 the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency began a telemarketing
campaign to encourage Danish businesses to adopt the digital signature, promoting the benefits of
doing so in connection with the e-government services provided through the virk.dk business portal. In
interviews, officials advised that the campaign was proving successful, with an approximately 50%
success rate in convincing businesses to adopt digital signatures.
In interviews where the question of uptake of digital signatures was discussed, two major
challenges were identified: 1) the need to develop useful e-government services to drive use of digital
signatures (more so for citizens than businesses at this stage); and 2) the fact that the architecture of
the PKI does not allow for development of PKI-enabled services designed to be delivered on mobile
platforms. While not yet a real problem, it is expected that this situation will become more problematic
as demand for mobile e-government increases over the medium to long term. Other interviewees
mentioned the long time frames required to implement a large-scale ICT infrastructure of this type as
being another challenge.
Key point 6.2
Denmark has chosen to develop a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) as a key part of its common public sector ICT
infrastructure. As a result of the eDay2 initiative, virtually all government organisations are now able to handle
electronic communications involving digital signatures.
The Government chose to develop its own PKI instead of adopting the Net-ID system proposed, and
subsequently implemented, by a consortium from the Danish banking sector. The decision-making process
highlights both the complexity of PKI and its strategic importance to both e-government and e-commerce in
Denmark.
Government and the banking sector continue to discuss the future development of their respective PKI systems.
Meanwhile, the e-government strategy targets distribution of 1.1 million digital signatures by the end of 2006;
425 817 had been issued by September 2005. To achieve the goal, government will have to make sure that: 1) it
is developing useful PKI enabled e-government services; 2) difficulties in implementing digital signatures for
employees are effectively addressed; and 3) the benefits of digital signatures are promoted to e-government
users.
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