Hannes Astok is the Deputy Director of Strategy & Development at the e-Governance Academy in Estonia. He has over 20 years of experience in Estonian politics and government, including as a member of parliament. The e-Governance Academy is a non-profit organization that was established in 2002 to help build open digital societies and has provided training to over 5,500 participants from 130+ countries. Estonia has developed a highly secure digital ecosystem for e-government services based on principles of strong digital identity, interoperable data exchange between systems, and accessible digital databases. This ecosystem underpins online access to over 500 government services.

1. Estonian e-government
secure ecosystem
Hannes Astok
Deputy Director, Strategy & Development
+372 5091366
Hannes.Astok@ega.ee

2. Hannes Astok
• 2011 - eGovernment expert,
Deputy Director,
e-Governance Academy
• 2007-2011 – Member of the
Estonian Parliament
• 2005 - Programme Director,
Municipal and Regional
eGovernance, e-
Governance Academy
• 1998-2005 Deputy Mayor,
Tartu City Government

3. Building and Developing
Open Digital Societies
Since 2002
e-Governance Academy

4. e-Governance Academy
• An independent and mission-based: non-profit,
non-governmental, non-academic.
• Jointly brought into existence by UNDP, Open
Society Institute and Estonian Government.

5. eGA’sreach
130+ countries, 200+ organisations
5500+ participants in training events

6. Estonia at glance

8. Estonia
• Population: 1.257 million
• Area: 45,200 km2
• Population density: 31 inhabitants per km2
• Urban population: 69%
• Rural population: 31%
• Birth rate: 10,68 per 1 000 residents
• Mortality rate: 11,70 per 1 000 residents
• Capital city: Tallinn, 430,000 residents
• GDP per capita: 19,704 USD (2017)
• Overall adults literacy: 100%

9. Oneofthe1stphotosof
Estonians,endof19th
Century

10. EdwardvanLõngus2016

11. Analog and digital elements of e-Government
ANALOG ELEMENTS
Legislation & regulations
Sustainable organization
Change management
Political will
DIGITAL ELEMENTS
Digital databases
Interoperability
Digital Identity
Document exchange
Services portal
Cyber security
Sectoral solutions

12. Where is the bottleneck?

16. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

17. Online versus Offline
Service
Time spent on e-
service (min)
Time spent on offline
service (min)
Time savings
(min)
Establishing a
company
30 510 480
VAT declaration 7 68 61
Tax declaration 10 78 68
i-Voting 6 44 38
In minutes. Source: e-Estonia.com

18. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

19. Digital Databases-
Digital Data Accessible

21. • Unique numeric identifiers for citizens, businesses,
real estate, land parcels, etc.
• Unique numeric identifiers are used across the
government for all transactions
• Once only. Citizens never have to provide the same
information twice.
• No duplicated data in the databases
Principles

22. • Central registry of databases metadata and online
services
• Clear data ownership
• Data is owned by the citizen
• Each authority is responsible for own database quality
Principles 2

23. Unique ID Number everywhere

24. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

25. Secure Data Exchange:
Governmental
interoperability

27. Governmental Secure Data
Exchange Solution
X-Road in Estonia

28. • Backbone of the Estonian government
• 17 years of active duty, no downtime from 2002
• 2600+services
• 1600+ interfaced information systems
• 1100+ connected institutions and enterprises
• 985 million transactions per year (2018)
Dashboard: https://www.x-tee.ee/factsheets/EE/#eng

29. X-Road
Population
Register
Adapter Server
Security Server
Vehicle
Register
Adapter Server
Security Server
Other
Register
Adapter Server
Security Server
Energy
Adapter Server
Security Server
Telecom
Adapter Server
Security Server
Banks
Adapter Server
Security Server
X - GIS
Adapter Server
Security Server
Document
Exchange
Centre
Adapter Server
Security Server
e-ID
Citizen
view
Enterpriser
view
Public
servant
view
PORTALS
e-Health, e-Police, e-Tax Board,
e-School, m-Parking, etc.
Admin
System of
State
Information
System
Adapter Server
Security ServerSecurity Server
TRUST
SERVICES
Certification
OCSP
Timestamping
Central
Server 2
Help Desk
Central Monitoring
Central
Server 1
Security Server
Internet Network

30. Principles
• Decentralized architecture
• No single point of failure
• Personal data protection
• Logging and timestamping of the transactions
• Legal value of the request and answer

31. Before paying out pensions
Pension
Authority
500,000 pension and
subsidy
payments/month
Civic Registry
Request: Are they alive?
(sending ID-numbers)
Automated response: Those 799 passed away
(response as ID numbers)
Time-stamped+digitally signed
X-Road

32. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

33. Strong Digital identity

34. Peter Steiner, The New Yorker, 5th July 1993

35. Digital ID and
Digital
Signature
Since 2002
Active ID-cards: 1 202 003
Active Mobil-ID: 213 257
Active Smart-ID : 422 782
Transactions yesterday: 1 739 232
Transactions last month: 35 505 233
Source: https://www.id.ee/?lang=en
,
9 April 2019

36. ID-card
since 2002
Two certificates on the chip:
1st for identification
2nd for digital signature
1st national document
Public e-services (e-Tax, e-Prescriptions etc)
Applying for driver license, social benefits
E-elections
Signing documents
Accessing grades and curriculum @ school
Bank transactions
Register a new business
Customer identification card, Bus ticket

37. mID
in SIM card
Doesn’t need software installed on PC
Doesn’t need web browser support
Works on any handset
Can be supported by any operator
Two certificates on the SIM card:
1st for identification
2nd for digital signature

38. mID
since 2007
All same services as eID
Trusted by the Government
213 000+ users (04/2019)
Over 40 M transaction in a year
30 transaction per user/month
500+ e-Services

39. SmartID
SIM-less mID from 2017
App in smartphone
Requires smartphone + connectivity
Fast, reliable, no cost for user
422,000 users in Estonia (04/2019
1,9 M users in Baltics (04/2019)
QSCD (Qualified Signature Creation
Device) Nov 2018
Certified by TÜViT (Germany)

40. Efficiency
Digital signatures save
20 minutes per
transaction
World Bank World Development Report 2016

45. Any benefits from eID and digital
signature?
5 working days saved by every citizen who
is using eID
It is 2% of working time
It is 2% of GDP
(2% of GDP goes for defense)
26.06.19

46. 2006: 0,5 million digital signatures
1 million digital autenthications
2010: 19,2 million digital signatures
33,7 million digital autenthications
2012: 31,9 million digital signatures
49,9 million digital autenthications
2016: 79 million digital signatures
102 million digital autenthications
Up to today: 730 million digital signatures
Statistics

47. Up to today: 730 million digital signatures
People and companies have saved
more than 1,46 billion € (2 € per signature)
Actual savings may be greater:
http://eturundus.eu/digital-signature/
http://eturundus.eu/digital-document/
Cost-Profit Calculators

48. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

49. Governmental service portal
www.eesti.ee
(Eesti=Estonia)

51. 13 April 2010
www.ega.ee

52. Strong Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure Data
Exchange
Digital Data Accessible

53. Strong
Digital
Identity
Portal &
Secure
Data
Exchange
Digital Data
Accessible
E-services
of the
Ministries Agencies Municipalities

54. Cyber security
• Complex issue: mixture of digital and analog
elements
• Roles and responsibilities in the government
• Technical measures
• Behavior of officials
• Awareness of the citizens

55. Key analog elements
• Legislation & Regulations
• Supportive organization
• Change management
• Political will

56. Future of the online
governance

57. EstoniaEstonia

58. EstoniaEstonia
Mr. Hannes
Astok, your
driving license
will expire.
Can we mail
you new?
Government
Yes No

59. EstoniaEstonia
Thank you!
Your new
driving
license will be
mailed to
your home
address.
OK

60. The future government is
Proactive
Online
24/7
Intuitive

61. Thank you!
Hannes Astok
www.ega.ee
+372 5091366
Hannes.Astok@ega.ee