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Applications for Electronic Signatures and Legislation

This article provides information on the legal framework governing electronic signature applications.

The applications are designed for creating and processing qualified electronic signatures (QES, or originally, in accordance with Act No. 215/2002 Coll. on Electronic Signatures, guaranteed electronic signatures (GES)). These signatures are used to authenticate electronic submissions and electronic official documents pursuant to Act No. 305/2013 Coll. on and in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 July 2014 on electronic identification and trust services for electronic transactions in the internal market and repealing Directive 1999/93/EC.

Applications designed for creating QES comply with the relevant security, functional and content requirements for electronic signature creation applications set out in the CEN CWA 14170 document, Act No. 272/2016 Coll. on Trust Services, and the relevant decrees of the National Security Authority of the Slovak Republic (NBÚ SR) concerning qualified electronic signatures.

  • D.Launcher v2.x – together with the new version of the D.Bridge JS libraries, v1.5, and the corresponding D.Bridge 2 web browser extension, it is used to launch and secure communication between a web page in the browser and the QES components integrated into the portal solutions of information systems. It also enables the automatic installation and updating of QES components on the Java platform, the required Java Runtime Environment (JRE), as well as its own automatic updates. It addresses several technological issues present in D.Launcher v1 by using more modern technologies.
  • D.Signer Suite – contains:
    • D.Signer/XAdES – an application designed to create qualified electronic signatures in the XAdES format, used to authorise electronic submissions and electronic official documents,
    • D.Signer Tools – components designed to create advanced data structures containing a qualified electronic signature,
    • D.Sig XAdES Extender – a component designed to create advanced data structures containing a qualified electronic signature, ranging from compound signatures to electronic submission structures,
    • ASiC Factory – a component designed to support the creation and processing of ASiC containers in the Baseline profile, used to combine electronic signature structures with signed data objects.
    • D.Viewer* – an application for viewing data structures used for electronic data exchange, particularly electronic submissions and electronic official documents.
    • New! D.Updater – an application for automatically checking the availability of updates (i.e. newer versions) of the components included in the D.Suite/eIDAS qualified electronic signature software package and installing them.
  • * All electronic forms can be viewed directly in the electronic mailbox. The electronic mailbox also provides functions such as signature verification, saving forms in PDF format, printing and other features that are not available in the D.Viewer application. Since D.Viewer is only an auxiliary application, only a small number of electronic forms available on the slovensko.sk portal are displayed in it. However, if you need to view a frequently used electronic form in D.Viewer, you can use the contact form to suggest that it be added to the D.Viewer repository (you must provide the identifier, version, name and format of the electronic form). This information can be found in the visualizations.xml file in the externalCode, name and visualTransformType attributes. The National Agency for Network and Electronic Services will then assess the request and determine whether it can provide the visualisation, taking its capacity constraints into account.

Electronic Signature Software Is Available for Multiple Operating Systems

Client applications for qualified electronic signatures (D.Signer/XAdES, D.Viewer, D.Signer Tools) are available for the MS Windows (.NET and Java), GNU/Linux (Java only) and Mac OS (Java only) operating systems. Both D.Launcher v1 and v2 are also available for all the operating systems listed above. Mobile operating systems (smartphones, tablets), such as Android or iOS, are currently not supported because the necessary libraries and certified qualified signature creation devices (QSCD – Qualified Signature Creation Device) required to implement qualified electronic signing on these operating systems in compliance with applicable legislation are not available.

Various applications from different providers can be used for electronic signing with a qualified electronic signature (QES). However, to create a qualified electronic signature on the www.slovensko.skOpens in a new window portal and certain other public administration portals, the applications listed above are usually required because they are integrated into the portal's web pages.

  • Information for integrators of QES applications
  • MSI installers for unattended installation of .NET versions of QES client applications

Recognised Method of Authorisation

The installation of client applications or plug-ins is required because, at present, no solution for signing documents with a qualified electronic signature that works directly in web browsers, without installing an additional plug-in, extension or client application, is available for all web browsers that must be supported.

Electronic signatures can only be created using a qualified signature creation device.

The D.Signer/XAdES application uses a qualified signature creation device (QSCD – Qualified Signature Creation Device) to create a qualified electronic signature (QES), such as an identity card with an electronic chip ( card), a Starcos smart card, etc. A list of certified QSCDs is available on the European Commission's website.

The necessary software and drivers for the QSCD or card reader are generally available on the website of the relevant trust service provider (formerly an accredited certification authority – ACA) that issued the qualified certificate to the user. Software for the identity card with an electronic chip ( card) is available on the Downloads page or on the website of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic.

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