Estonia Blocks Digital ID Card Access to Prevent Identity Theft
Estonia’s pioneering approach to launching digital initiatives is widely regarded as successful, making life more convenient for its citizens, and saving resources and expenses for the public sector. However, it also exposes Estonians and their institutions to greater cybersecurity risks.
Estonia is viewed as a digital leader in Europe, with many government and public services provided online through its nationwide identity system. Estonians can access services including health and pension records, medical prescriptions, and voting information using the system.
Every Estonian citizen can provide digital signatures using their ID card in order to gain access to the bank of online services offered by the state and private companies alike.
However, chips in the country’s online ID cards were found to have a security flaw that could make holders vulnerable to identity theft.
On November 2, 2017, Estonia announced plans to block access to online services by removing security certificates for about 760,000 people from midnight (UTC) tonight to remedy a security flaw in some of the ID cards.
Estonia has multiple alternative digital IDs that citizens can still use to access services safely, and smartphones and tablets can also be used to access digital identity.
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