Mobile signature
A mobile signature is a digital signature generated either on a mobile phone or on a sim card. The term was first used by Paul Gibson (G&D) and Romary Dupuis (France Telecom) in their standarisation work at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and published in ETSI Technical Report TR 102 203. Currently, GSM phones and WAP phones are mostly supporting this technology. Those mobile signature services on sim cards can be supported by almost all GSM phones, regardless of their capacity. In the near future, 3 G-phones and otherportable devices will feature a similar mobile signature application.
The mobile signature is the legal equivalent of your own wet signature. The mobile signature is created by typing a secret code (i.e. your signing PIN) into the signing device (for example: your mobile phone). This secret code in combination with your key storage token (for example: SIM card) and a chosen text triggers a cryptographic algorithm to generate the (digital) signature.
Each of your mobile/digital signatures can be linked to a digital certificate (an electronic record)that vouches for your real-world identity.
Thus, the mobile signature is a unique feature for:
- Proving your real-world identity to third parties without face-to-face communications
- Making a legally-binding commitment by sending a confirmed message to another party
- Solve security problems of the online world with identity confirmation.
Qualified Mobile Signature Service providers in the world:
- Elisa / Finland http://www.elisa.fi
- TeliaSonera / Finland http://www.teliasonera.fi
- Turkcell / Turkey http://www.turkcell.com.tr
Companies offering Mobile Signature Service infrastructure in the world:
- Valimo / Finland http://www.valimo.com
Mobile Signature with On Board Key Generation
Turkcell is the first provider of a mobile signature service with "On Board Key Generation" functionality, which enables customers to create their signing and validation key pair, after they get the simcard. In this way GSM operators does not need to distribute signing PINs to customers. Customers can create their PIN anew, on their own.