The availability and use of the “Seal” button (Figure 1) in the OVM electronic mailbox, within the message creation environment (the so-called message composer), are subject to the following conditions:
1. Electronically: If the employee has not yet been granted authorisation, the head of the OVM must log in to the portal at www.slovensko.sk on behalf of the OVM, open the electronic mailbox, and navigate to “Settings” → “Authorisations of Persons”. They must then complete and submit the electronic formOpens in a new window for granting authorisation to a natural person, making sure to add the “Sealing” role (code: R_EDESK_SIGN) under “Authorisation Scope”.
If the employee has already been granted authorisation, the head of the OVM must log in to the portal and navigate to “Profile” → “Representation Overview”. They must then click “Edit” next to the relevant employee. In the amendment form, under “Authorisation Scope”, they must add the “Sealing” role (code: R_EDESK_SIGN), in addition to any other applicable roles, and submit the form.
2. In paper form: The head of the OVM must complete the paper application available on www.slovensko.sk under “Forms”, in the section dedicated to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic for Investments and Informatization, under “Applications for Public Authorities” (application for granting or amending authorisation). In addition to the other required information, they must tick the “Sealing” option in Section B: Representation of the OVM – Authorisation Scope/Role. The signature of the head of the OVM must be officially certified before the paper application is submitted.
More information about the benefits of granting electronic mailbox authorisation electronically.Opens in a new window
More information about the authorisation of OVM electronic documents.Opens in a new window
To seal a document using the function in the message composer, it is not necessary to have a signing application installed, as the seal is created by the Central Electronic Filing Service (hereinafter also referred to as “CEP”).
Consequently, the user will not be presented with a signing application displaying a preview of the document, will not need to select a signing certificate, and will not be required to enter any PIN. An OVM can have only one seal certificate registered in CEP, and this certificate is used automatically.
Since no document preview is displayed after clicking “Seal”, we recommend always checking that you are sealing the correct document. For this purpose, you can use the “View” function available in the “...” menu when dealing with data entered using an electronic form. For other file formats, the document must first be downloaded and opened on your computer using the appropriate application.
After clicking “Seal”, the system seals the electronic submission or official electronic documents and displays a confirmation that the sealing process has been completed successfully. A qualified electronic timestamp is also automatically added as part of the sealing process.
In the seal details, under “Informative Verification Result”, no information is displayed identifying the natural person who created the seal; only the name of the OVM is shown. Information about the person who performed the sealing is recorded only in the internal system logs of the ÚPVS and is therefore not accessible to users of the electronic mailbox.
It is also possible to seal an electronic form which, at the time of registration, had the “Sign on behalf of the institution” option selected in the POSP (Processing Procedure). Once such a sealed form is submitted, it will not be sealed again after submission.
At the same time, we recommend that no new electronic forms be registered with the “Sign on behalf of the institution” option selected in the POSP. The option to register new electronic forms with this POSP setting was scheduled to be discontinued in March 2019[2], and the option to seal documents through forms already registered was also scheduled to be discontinued by the third quarter of 2019 at the latest.
It follows that, if an OVM is not integrated with CEP, it will only be able to seal documents through the message composer.
Fig. Button “Seal”
The HSM server is a certified secure device designed to initialize a qualified certificate for a qualified electronic seal. If a Public Authority (OVM) already has an electronic seal in the ÚPVS HSM module, it does not need to request a new one to use this new sealing functionality. An electronic seal can also be created using a key pair and certificate stored, for example, on a token, smart card, USB drive, or similar device. In such cases, it is not necessary to have a key pair for the seal stored in the ÚPVS HSM module; instead, the “Sign” button should be used.
Using an electronic form that was configured in POSP during registration with the option “Sign on behalf of the institution” is not compliant with the applicable legislation, as it does not meet the requirements of Sections 16 and 16a of Act No. 395/2002 Coll. on Archives and Registries. This is because only an unsigned version of the document, without an electronic seal, is retained in the messages sent by the Public Authority (OVM). Instead, we recommend using the sealing functionality available in the message composer or direct integration with CEP, both of which comply with the aforementioned legislation.
