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SwissSign certificates recognized across the EU
Press Release 13.12.2016
SwissSign, a subsidiary of Swiss Post and leading provider of trustworthy, digital certificates, now conforms to standards for the provision of certification services in Liechtenstein. This means that SwissSign is laying the foundations for the EU Regulation on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market (eIDAS). As a result, companies benefit from a higher degree of legal security for their digital processes supported by SwissSign certificates. This development represents SwissSign’s response to the wishes of its Swiss customers operating across the globe and numerous customers across Europe.
At the end of June 2016, SwissSign was certified as a provider of certification services in Liechtenstein and can therefore now issue qualified certificates for legally valid electronic signatures recognized across the entire EU. One way that SwissSign was able to achieve this was by establishing a subsidiary in the EEA member country Liechtenstein. In addition to recognition within the EU and EEA, SwissSign is also certified in accordance with the Swiss Federal Act on Electronic Signatures (ZertES) as well as ISO 27001 and meets the requirements of the internationally valid WebTrust guidelines.
As of 1 July 2016, the eIDAS Regulation replaced the previously valid Directive 1999/93/EC in the EU. The eIDAS Regulation contains new binding rules applicable to all EU Member States regarding “Electronic identification” and “Electronic trust services”. The Regulation creates a unified regulatory framework for the cross-border use of electronic means of identification and trust services. In addition to revising the regulations on electronic signatures, the Regulation also covers services related to electronic seals and time stamps, electronic registered delivery services and website certificates. The revision of the Swiss Federal Act on Electronic Signatures (ZertES), which has been approved by the Swiss Federal Council and is set to come into force in 2017, is heavily based on the new eIDAS Regulation. Due to the lack of bilateral agreements between Switzerland and the EU in this area, certificates produced under Swiss law are however not automatically recognized by EU Member States.
“With this big step towards the EU and EEA, we offer our domestic and international customers added value in terms of cross-border legal security,” says Urs Fischer, CEO of SwissSign AG. “We sense a clear increase in demand for legally valid digital signatures that are recognized throughout Europe. Together with its partners, SwissSign offers outstanding solutions for companies who would like to further digitize their business processes.”
About SwissSign
Secure e-business processes rely on trusted identities in the form of digital certificates. SwissSign is a leading provider of simple services for trusted digital identities. SwissSign offers digital certificates for servers and devices (SSL and device certificates), for individuals, authorities and companies, as individual products or managed PKI certificate services. SwissSign also offers time stamp and signature services. SwissSign is a Swiss Post company and a member of the “swiss made software” label.
