News
Signicat & Cryptshare enable secure digital communication with clear electronic proof of identity
March 2021 by Marc Jacob
Signicat and Cryptshare successfully combine platform-independent email encryption and secure file transfer with trusted sender and recipient identities. This way, information in business communication can be exchanged securely and with legal proof of who sent and received it. The planned solution goes far beyond the customary methods of identification: It offers numerous new use cases for communication in the B2B or B2C environment and thus meets the rapidly increasing demand for binding confidentiality in the digital world. It is characterised, above all, by maximum usability for end users, which is the most important basis for any sustainable application in practice. Despite the complexity of the project, a concrete market offering is expected in Q3 2021.
A solution for secure digital exchanges with identity verification for sender and recipient
With the Signicat platform, it is possible to use Cryptshare’s services with so-called eIDAS-compliant secure authentications. The abbreviation eIDAS is an EU regulation and stands for electronic IDentification, Authentication and trust Services. The new solution will be regularly supplemented by various digital identification services. Although their use is not yet widespread, the need for such services has increased significantly due to the situation created by COVID-19. Severely reduced in-person contacts led to an intensified use of digital contact options. This development will be expanded on in the future because of the gains in efficiency for all parties involved. Clear proof of identity will become an increasingly integral part of secure digital communication.
Despite all predictions to the contrary, email has been firmly established in everyday business as well as private life for many years, with 87% of all citizens in the United Kingdom using email in 2020 (source: Statista). As a familiar medium, it brings enormous added value if it is available as a basis for secure and, above all, clearly traceable communication. This includes and is not limited to exchanges between citizens and authorities, with doctors or hospitals, and correspondence with banks or insurance companies. Until now, such communication has mostly been managed via disparate systems such as secure forms of individual administration portals or ’private’ mailboxes of banks. However, the resulting multitude of different methods, passwords, and platforms represents a roadblock for most end users. This significantly hinders widespread use, so existing solutions suffer from a lack of acceptance in their practical application and the investments made by providers are thus rendered inefficient.
Signicat and Cryptshare are now working on the missing and overdue combination of platform-independent email and the clear digital identity of users to counteract this.
Cooperation on a level playing field
It was important for both providers to find an equal partnership for this task, and they have already started on the different sub-projects. The market offering is planned for Q3 2021, despite the ambitious objectives of the project. Anders Ljungqvist, Managing Director at Signicat Germany and Dominik Lehr, CEO at Cryptshare, agree that the cooperation will have a strong impact on the market share of both companies. They also emphasise that the partnership, which is characterised by openness and trust, is the basis for fruitful collaboration and joint success in the future.
