this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2023
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Personal ID cards have certificates on them issued by the government. These certificates can be used for anything from digitally signing documents to logging in to government web sites without having yet another user/pass. So far situations was a nightmare.
Government provided tools and plugins for browsers to support logging in and signing, but it's been a shitshow when it comes to support. Pretty much only Windows and only certain versions of it and even then it worked half of the time. You had to install certificate manually and trust, etc. Am assuming this is to make sure these services work but also so they can issue certificates for their own web sites.
Personal digital certificate sounds like an awesome concept. Too bad the implementation seems so narrow-minded. Typical beaureaucrats.
They want to make all the decisions but are also mad that the IT guy presentation is taking to long and isn’t using simpler language
My country has half-assed implementation but in general it has been great. For any signing I can just shove my personal id, enter pin and document is cryptographically signed. No alteration possible. And since government is the issuer of the certificate, no one can fake it. We have our e-government thing also, where you can do a lot of things, from checking your kids grades in school to theoretically handling all of the documentation you might need. Personal id is used to login into that service. Shove a card, enter pin and you are there. No sign up, remember password, etc. I have even set up, at one point, login into my computer using my personal id, out of curiosity as it held no other benefit. Had to add that root certificate to my machine though.
Sadly it all sounds great on paper, but execution is lacking. Some things still require pen and paper and it's annoying, but we'll get there. That's why my assumption is governments wanting to push for easier integration. Then all you'd need was card reader and a browser. Which also the reason why I don't think they are trying to push this idea for nefarious purposes. People download and install government software without thinking or double-checking all the time. Adding certificate through any installation wouldn't be much of a challenge.
"No one can fake it" Oh boy. This is going to be an utterly horrible future.
We have them in Spain. Really useful as my accountant has a copy of mine for my tax filing on their windows machines and I have it installed on my Linux laptop for interfacing with gov sites
Your accountant has your private key???
Yeah. It’s pretty common here
Lol such a bad idea. In Portugal your accountant could sign almost any document with it.
Same in Germany. You can grant access to the accountant to that data, but never ever with your private key... Giving away your private key is a horrible idea...
I did a different thing. I ordered a separate certificate, gave it to my assistant who handles tax things with my accountant, but am the only one with password. They don't really remember or write down password because it gives them fewer things to worry about and we have sufficient security this way.
And they don't even use custom crypto!