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Duma adopts bill clarifying uses of various types of electronic signature

The draft law specifies which types of electronic signatures will be used in which situations from January 1, 2014

MOSCOW, November 16, 23:47 /ITAR-TASS/. The State Duma adopted this week, in the first reading, a draft law clarifying cases of enhanced encrypted certified and enhanced encrypted non-certified digital signatures.

The draft law specifies which types of electronic signatures will be used in which situations from January 1, 2014. The document was necessitated by the need to avoid a possible confusion that could have occurred after July 1, 2013, when a legislative provision establishing three formats for using electronic signatures -- enhanced encrypted certified, enhanced encrypted non-certified and simple -- came into effect.

According to Deputy Chair of the Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Entrepreneurship and Innovations Viktor Klimov, the enhanced encrypted certified signature has the maximum degree of protection and will be issued only the centres accredited by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media and will be equal to the handwritten signature of a person.

The enhanced encrypted non-certified digital signature has the same degree of protection, but it can be issued by not only by certification centres accredited by the Ministry of Communications but also by certification centres of foreign countries.

Klimov noted that the vast majority of government information systems should use only enhanced encrypted non-certified digital signatures. “This logic can be overstepped only when legal relations involve foreign counterparties as in public bidding or in the customs declaration process. The draft law makes exceptions for these situations,” he said.