Strong authentication and certificate cards – what are they?
Certificate cards for different use cases
Finnish public administration e-services generally require strong authentication to verify identity. A certificate card is a convenient way to authenticate:
- Identity card: Issued by the police, the chip contains a citizen certificate that enables strong electronic authentication for many public sector online services.
- Organization card: Certificates are issued by a certificate service provider. Employees can authenticate to public administration e-services, log in to workstations and networks, encrypt emails and documents, and create electronic signatures.
- Social and healthcare professional cards: Used for secure identification and electronic signing of patient records and prescriptions. Maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
- Valtti card: An ID card for construction workers that meets Occupational Safety and Health Act requirements. A contactless card used for electronic access control and monitoring.
What is eIDAS?
eIDAS is an EU regulation governing electronic identification and trust services. It will eventually enable strong authentication across all EU member states. While the Suomi.fi identification service currently accepts notified identification methods from other countries, Finnish methods have not yet been notified. Consequently, they cannot yet be used to access electronic services in other eIDAS member states.