Introduction of Private Electronic Signatures on Public Websites such as Government24 and Hometax

Example of using private electronic signatures for issuing resident registration certificates for year-end tax settlement purposes.

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] Private electronic signatures such as Kakao and PASS will be available for use on government public websites like Government24 and Hometax.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 11th that starting from the 13th, private electronic signatures will be applied for the first time alongside the joint certificate (formerly the public certificate) on Government24's 'Year-end Tax Settlement Resident Registration Certificate Issuance Service,' and by the end of March, this will be fully implemented across all Government24 services.

Additionally, from the 15th, private electronic signatures will be introduced to Hometax's 'Year-end Tax Settlement Simplification Service,' and from the 29th, to the People's Petition 'Civil Complaint and Proposal Application Service.'

This follows the enforcement of the revised Electronic Signature Act on December 10th last year, which abolished the public certificate system and granted equal legal effect to various private electronic signatures.

Unlike the existing public certificate, private electronic signatures do not require annual renewal, and the issuance and authentication procedures are simpler, which is expected to improve convenience for the public.

To use the so-called 'simple authentication,' a private electronic signature in addition to the existing joint certificate, users must first obtain a certificate through the mobile app of the pilot project operator.

In the future, in the financial sector, led by the Financial Services Commission, amendments to the 'Electronic Financial Transactions Act' will be pursued to develop and utilize various convenient and secure electronic signature (authentication) methods.

The Ministry of Science and ICT operates an electronic signature evaluation and accreditation system that verifies the safety, reliability, and security of electronic signature certifications to help the public choose from various electronic signatures. On the 18th of last month, three organizations?the Korea Information and Communication Technology Association (TTA), the Financial Security Institute, and Deloitte Anjin LLC?were newly selected as evaluation agencies for electronic signature certification service providers.

Following this pilot project, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to gradually expand the scope of the project so that the public can use various private electronic signatures on more public websites.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.