Digital Certificates on SIM Cards
As from the beginning of November, Finland's Sonera will provide citizen and corporate certificate services on new SIM cards operating on both GSM and UMTS networks. This will make it easier for users to conduct electronic transactions even when they are on the move. Corporate users can opt to activate both of these services for their use on the same SIM card.
Increasing mobile working and expanding service offering set higher and higher requirements for electronic transactions. In addition to being useful and easy to use, the services must also be secure. Reliable user identification, for example, is one of the basic premises for remote transactions.
In January 2005, Sonera was the first Finnish operator to launch a service that was based on the citizen certificate of the Population Register Centre and targeted at consumers. Sonera Certificate Card is a secure identification and signing tool for electronic transactions in connection with, for example, the online service of the central and local government, Internet commerce or customer service. By means of the Certificate Card, mobile phone users can identify themselves for various transaction services uniformly, using the same PIN code, regardless of the service channel. The user's PIN code is not transmitted on the Internet at all; only a signature made via the mobile phone is transmitted securely on the mobile network.
Sonera Mobile Certificate, which is targeted at corporate customers, has been available from spring 2003. By means of the mobile certificate, customers can identify themselves for six Sonera information security and remote use services, such as the browser or mobile phone based email and calendar service or the VPN information security service.
As from the beginning of November, Sonera's mobile citizen certificate and corporate certificate will be available for new SIM cards operating on both GMS and UMTS networks. The benefits provided by the new card include for example security PIN codes that the users can change themselves.
"Electronic services and remote transactions are an important part of Sonera's service development. We believe that equipping third-generation mobile subscriptions with mobile certificates helps to increase the volume of remote transactions that customers conduct using a mobile phone. Terminals utilizing the high-speed UMTS network are natural channels for remote transactions, as high speed improves the usability of the services. The easier and more secure customers find remote transactions, the sooner the available services become a part of everyday life," says Timo Aarvala, who is responsible for B2B Managed Services of TeliaSonera Finland.
"Sonera's new SIM cards equipped with a certificate help to increase service providers' interest in mobile citizen certificate services. The Population Register Centre, in turn, expects operators and other service providers to provide services enabling mobile certificate roaming from the beginning of 2006," says Tapio Aaltonen of the Finnish Population Registration Centre.
Sonera Certificate Card can be activated for all Sonera mobile subscriptions (with the exception of Sonera Easy). Introduction of the service requires that the present SIM card be replaced with Sonera Certificate Card, equipped with the identifier features required by the citizen certificate, and that the citizen certificate be registered with the police. The customers with Sonera Mobile Certificate, intended for corporate use, can activate the citizen certificate for Sonera corporate subscriptions as a supplementary service free of charge."
Posted to the site on 27th October 2005