Article published in EXPANSIÓN – Digital 4.0 – Factory & Technology on April 19, 2023
Imagine registering your address or changing your registered address without having to go to the town hall, hiring staff at your company and signing the contract from anywhere, or having entities verify your identity and identify cases of fraud or identity theft for criminal purposes against you. Undoubtedly, the range of opportunities is vast and would represent significant advantages for all users: time savings, faster and simpler procedures, and more controlled and reliable processes. But to achieve this, one aspect is vital: security. Security is an essential condition for these transactions to be valid, reliable, and continue to develop.
That’s why it’s crucial to understand what electronic trust services are and for all users to be able to identify them. They are a set of highly regulated services controlled by EU governments that primarily relate to the identity of individuals and businesses. Their main objective is to guarantee the security of digital interactions. To ensure this security, there are regulations and technical standards developed by international, European, and national standardization bodies that define in detail the mandatory requirements for providing these services, both technologically and in terms of management and security. Furthermore, the government requires companies and organizations that wish to offer them—the aforementioned Qualified Providers of Electronic Trust Services—to be certified. This involves several audits that verify that the products, infrastructure, and organizations comply with all standards and regulatory requirements. And how can users recognize them? These certified providers can be found on a public list compiled by both the Spanish government and the EU.
To ensure that our society’s digital transformation respects our rights as EU citizens and that the data we share with each other and with third parties is handled reliably, we need to know how to identify certified service providers. How? Always look for the Qualified Trust Service Provider label.