The Estonian Information System Authority has opened a communication environment and a file exchange environment for testing; these secure solutions are available for people with an Estonian personal identification code and a recognised eID tool.
According to Margus Arm, the director of the State Information System, the communication environment, Vestlus, is accessible for everyone verifying their identity via the state authentication service with an Estonian eID tool.
“We have implemented this solution because state authorities and their partners require a shared communication environment with data processing taking place in Estonia. In the current crisis, where many employees are working remotely, we have made this solution available for everyone who may need a channel like this for exchanging information,” he said.
Vestlus is primarily intended to be a text-based communication environment that allows creating different chat groups and inviting other participants. Users are identified via their ID-card, mobile-ID, or Smart-ID and displayed on the basis of their last name and personal identification code. This makes it possible to involve only the right people in a conversation.
The development will continue
People wishing to use the service must review its general terms and conditions and consent to the processing of personal data. Only the beta version of the service is currently publicly available, ie its development will continue. The online version of the service can be used in most common web browsers as well as on Android and iOS devices, using the phone application, Rocket.Chat.
In the file exchange environment, Sahver, companies and their partners can exchange large data (up to 2 GB) securely. Sahver uses the freeware version of the Nextcloud platform and is intended for short-term sharing of data. The personal identification code of the recipient of the file is required for sharing files via Sahver.
Cover: An Estonian ID-card in use. The image is illustrative.
