Itsme_2

AIDAS (Electronic Identification Authentication and Trust Services) is a European Union legislation aimed at ensuring reliable electronic identification and trust services. AIDAS v2, the updated version, focuses on enhancing security and addressing inconsistencies in the original legislation. It introduces the concept of a unified European digital identity and requires member states to provide their citizens with a European identity wallet. It's me, a digital identity solution, is currently accredited as an e-identification means and a qualified trust service provider under AIDAS. It allows users to authenticate and access various e-government applications. It's me is also positioned to facilitate the integration of the European identity wallet within the private sector and enable secure data exchange with user consent. It prioritizes security and has its own security operation center to monitor threats and ensure resilience. It's me is expanding to more countries and aims to be intern Welcome to another Connector podcast from Belgium Fintech and today we have Tom from it's me Tom welcome in a podcast. Hi Koen. Hello. Today we're going to talk about AIDAS version 2. What is this about? Well indeed let me maybe start with already what is AIDAS as an abbreviation because we will be talking a lot about AIDAS probably the name and the word will be dropped a lot would be very useful. So first of all AIDAS stands for Electronic Identification Authentication and Trust Services. It is actually a European Union legislation and regulation implemented initially in 2014 with the objective to ensure scalable and reliable electronic identification and trust services across European Union. AIDAS facilitates electronic interactions between citizens businesses and public authorities. The update of the AIDAS law and you've already referred to it AIDAS v2 or AIDAS 2.0 as often referred to actually builds upon the original AIDAS legislation and AIDAS law. Detailing an exhaustive set of differences and nuances between AIDAS v1 and AIDAS v2 would probably lead us too far for today. We would still be here in the evening even when it gets dark. Even if days are already extending for quite a bit. Though I would really like to emphasize on two main differences two key evolutions I consider most important from the it's me perspective. First of all AIDAS v2 aims to enhance security and reliability of the electronic identification and trust services. Secondly AIDAS v2 is actually about tackling one of the main challenges which is encountered within AIDAS v1 namely consistency. The original AIDAS implementation has too much varied across the different member states which has led to inconsistencies and difficulties in using the services. The main shift therefore embedded in AIDAS v2 is the creation of a unified European digital identity. With the digital identity wall the concept we'll most probably be touching on very soon as a key component. Now it's super interesting because in my mind I always knew that AIDAS was one of the first regulations that was truly European and even that now is saying there is a reason for update for that reason. Exactly it's actually building up on maturity let's say and it's taking the next step in that first wave of structuring that from a European Union perspective. Excellent. Tom we didn't go there in the first place in the very beginning of our podcast but what is it's me because maybe listeners have not even heard about it's me. Yeah true well it's me is a digital identity solution. It's about a mobile application that facilitates data sharing authentication up to qualified electronic signatures. We'll come back to that concept later on in the podcast as well most probably which is actually today available in 14 countries and which is serving about 7 million users in their day-to-day interactions. We see on average that it's me is being used more than once a week in different interactions across public and private sector use cases. And where does it's me bring you then in in relation to AIDAS v2? Well AIDAS v2 or let's say it's me today has two key accreditations and roles under the current AIDAS legislation. First of all it's me is accredited as what they call an e-identification means at the highest level. To make that a bit more tangible the e-identification means is actually the driver behind the fact that it's me is today available on the FAS and the federal authentication hub of the Belgian government. That is making sure that it's allowing 7 million users and 7 million Belgians to use it's me to authenticate and access about 800 e-governmental applications going from the student at work up to my pension and my minimum wage. Secondly it's me is also being accredited as a qualified trust service provider, the second concept under AIDAS which makes it possible to sign with it's me a document in a qualified way. So that actually with it's me by entering your five digit code you can sign a document with the same legal value as the wet as the paper signature. And given the nature of it's me often referred to as a ragtag because every beast needs a name I would say we are obviously closely following up on the different drafts of the AIDAS legislation and in that context today is actually a very special day because just at noon they officially announced that the final version of AIDAS v2 has been released. Given that only today they released the final version it is not possible yet to formally accredit this already for AIDAS v2 which will most probably very soon be possible. Though I'm convinced based on our analysis and the different checks we've been performing while the different drafts have been published and exchanged that our current AIDAS accreditations will be reconfirmed also under the AIDAS v2 core framework. Well earlier Tom you talked about an identity wallet a European identity wallet could you elaborate a little bit more on that concept? Sure well next to the impact on our current offering and we've been talking about e-identification means about qualified signatures AIDAS v2 is actually introducing a new concept the digital identity wallet and each member state will have or has since it's published officially today the obligation to provide their citizens with a European identity wallet in the course of the next two years. From it's me perspective with it's me being a good example of a successful collaboration between the public and the private sector which we also want to continue. Under the AIDAS v2 framework I actually see three key roles or three opportunities. First of all your identity wallet will include digital references of your personal and privacy sensitive information. Think about your identity card a driver's license and potentially health attestations. It's me therefore can be used as a secure key to make sure that only you only the genuine person can access manage and eventually exchange this information. Secondly as different private players policies like banks telcos will need to adopt the digital wallet also within their ecosystem. It's me is very well placed even its current network and technical integrations with about 1000 partners to streamline and facilitate the technical integration of the European identity wallet within the b2b network. And last but not least because I said I was going to talk about three there is also a key role for it's me in the facilitation and the exchange of data attributes with and that's for me a key concept the explicit consent of the user. Let me emphasize on that with a concrete example. Think about renting a car typically that car rental company will ask for identity information checking if the person is above 18 years of age will also probably ask for a payment means to process afterwards the invoice and last but not least they will are will be willing to check if you one have a driver's license and two if that is still valid and you're not being stopped over the weekend for speeding or maybe drunk driving. In that context and for these kind of use cases also it's me can be positioned as a trust anchor allowing the user to provide his explicit consent for the data exchange through the it's me app and in the meantime very well known what you see is what you sensory and leverage its existing technical integration with the partners to provide the requested data set. Important to state for me is that in this setup or this is a setup whereby it's me apart from the identity data is not managing not storing these other data attributes but will focus on exchanging and capturing the consent of the user only. So we'll be talking about self-sovereign identity coming into reality. Absolutely and we could even say for us self-sovereignty is maybe one extreme whereby you push everything is user from it's me perspective we believe very much in a hybrid module whereby you have that core identity data set manage that it's me side which will also allow us to facilitate in a convenient way lifecycle management for the user think about changing a device happening every two to three years and secondly also making sure that for example in the context of security and privacy we can help and we can steer to make sure that we remain up to par with market trends and protect and make it a transparent experience for you because that was my reflection when hearing to your very nice story about the holy trinity it's about the user and about the concern about security so can you elaborate maybe a little bit more how you guys are particularly addressing these security requirements well security is next to convenience and privacy one of the three key focus areas for it and to make sure that or it's me ecosystem because i would call it an ecosystem and the collaboration with the partners remains ahead of market from a security perspective we have set up our own security operation center which we often refer to as our sock and actually our sock is constantly following up on new threats new market evolutions we see a number of attempts and numerous creative attempts every day is about scanning any abnormal patterns or behaviors and it's closely following up with the ccp and the cyber crime security unit from the belgian government to drive resilience of the whole ecosystem but there is a strong belgium story here but i i hear people or birds whispering that also it's me is looking at broadening out of belgium how would that look like oh so actually that's a very actual team we've since december of last year we have been extending the countries through which the documents through which a user can enroll and activate it to me from three up to 14 countries wow impressive thank you and key element there is it's not only about extending the countries we have envisaged is me as from day one from an international from a european perspective that's also why for us it was key to for example be accredited in the context of adas because that for example to just name one example or one concrete element that allows us to support the qualified electronic signatures so the equivalent of a legal wet paper signature not only for the belgian citizens but for the whole european union well i hear a lot of nice stories um how does technology play a role in your end a technology often of course is a key element we are based on a smartphone we are an application on a smartphone so obviously we're following up a lot on technology and also technological evolutions the fact that is what we try to do is to combine technology user convenience with security and also compliance i refer to its me as being a rec tech that also means that we are constantly at the outlook how can we make sure that we make the most convenient experience for rent user possible still respecting the different regulations and compliancy frameworks which are also constantly evolving of which adas v2 is a nice example do you have perhaps any other examples where it's me can be used out of the context of me using it for my governmental information sure i think the same thing as i said earlier on would go here we could probably talk for about a day and that's probably the passion that speaks but if i need to take out two then i would emphasize on for example bolero an affiliate of the kbc group where we actually combine our ability to share data and a qualified science service to facilitate the customer onboarding process because actually the fact that we can offer these two services allows us to make sure that the user can on a sunday afternoon become user and a customer of bolero with the same level of compliance as he would have been passing in a bank branch on a monday morning and there it's me is not only driving a fully digital and a kyc aml compliant process but it is also allowed to shorten the process from about three weeks in a physical world to up to three minutes with it's me today second example and i'll stop at two as i promised you also have not three this time not three this time indeed you have also have henkel for example in the hr sector is another good example of the usps of the qualified electronic signature service of it's me for example in the context of signing an employment contract the qualified sign service offers the same value of a wet of a paper signature which is legally required for these kind of interactions at the same time it's me golf offering goes beyond signing of employment contracts and can facilitate the signing of various documents and help to streamline even the entire hr process well impressive um tom you're almost at the end of our conversation here i think the last question i'm left with is uh who should contact you and how do they contact you well i would say everybody with a genuine interest in it's me or maybe a potential opportunity who has been triggered maybe by the different elements brought forward more than welcome and very happy if they reach out for me two ways to do that uh they can contact us through our website where they can contact our sales teams or even the support teams should you encounter any issue uh directly of course don't hesitate to also reach out to me directly via tom.vandenbos that's b-o-s-e-h at itsme-id.com tom it was a pleasure having you here in the podcast thank you very much thank you also to the audience for staying tuned and stay tuned for more fintech and financial news thank you very much thank you the pleasure with mine bye