Swiss Post extends popular digital ID service
Swiss Post is offering an extension facility for its successful digital verification service, SuisseID. The company said today that 8,000 customers have now placed orders for the service, including business customers that have ordered as many as several thousand separate SuisseID accounts.
The service offers customers a “digital identity”, which they can use, via a PIN number, to log into official websites and sign digital legal documents.
It includes access to certain e-government services, through a special eGov SuisseID edition, and can also be used as a single sign-on process for sites including Google Apps, SAP, Salesforce.com and Oracle.
Launched this time last year, around 90% of customers choosing to receive their Swiss Post digital identity via a USB stick, while others ordered a card. Around 20% of orders for the USB stick were for the smart version, “SwissStick”, which includes applications such as the company’s secure mailing platform, called IncaMail.
Following the initial success of the verification service, Swiss Post has launched new developments including a facility to extend the current three-year lifespan of the SuisseID digital identities.
For a fee of CHF 19 (about USD 21.5), the validity period can be extended by one to three years, which Swiss Post said would mean avoiding a time-consuming extension procedure.
Other developments for the platform include a new secure PIN unlock key (PUK) system to help those who have forgotten their PIN numbers. SuisseID users will be able to upgrade to the system from next month.
