Institutioneller Rahmen des Electronic Commerce: Eine ordnungsökonomische Analyse am Beispiel der digitalen Signatur

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State of the art of electronic signatures

Die Sicherheit von elektronischer Kommunikation und von Transaktionen ist ein kritisches Thema heutzutage. Um Verträge online abzuschließen ist ein hoher Sicherheitsstandard notwendig und das Thema „Digitale Signatur" damit ein integrativer Bestandteil jeder digitalen Geschäftsdurchführung. In diesem Zusammenhang wurden 44 Länder untersucht, darunter alle 27 EU-Mitgliedsstaaten, 3 Bewerberländer und 14 weitere europäische Staaten und in einer strukturierten Zusammenschau in den Dimensionen rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen, technische Standards und Marktdurchdringung zusammengefasst. Um einen allgemeinen Eindruck über die aktuelle Situation in jedem Land zu gewinnen, wurde eine erste Internetrecherche gestartet, ein Fragenkatalog zusammengestellt und per e-Mail ausgesandt, sowie Kontakte mit verschiedenen Institutionen und Unternehmen aufgebaut. Die eingeholten Informationen wurden in der Studie zusammengefasst. Zum Zweck der Übersichtlichkeit wurde die Studie stark strukturiert und subjektive Interpretationen bewusst ausgelassen um die Fakten für sich sprechen zu lassen. Die Vollständigkeit der gesammelten Daten wird reflektiert in der Länderklassifikation. Um einen raschen Überblick zu erlangen wurde am Ende jeder Länderanalyse eine Tabelle erstellt, welche die Entwicklung des Landes in Bezug auf digitale Signaturstandards zusammenfasst, sowie eine Bewertung in Hinblick auf verfügbare Information und Entwicklungsstand enthält. Die aktuelle Studie demonstriert auf deutliche Art und Weise, dass es keine globale Implementierung von digitaler Signatur bis jetzt erreicht wurde, hauptsächlich durch eine technische Interoperabilität der Systeme, Prozesse und Konfigurationen, wobei die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen nicht das Hindernis sind. Es ist nicht schwer zu verstehen, dass eine grenzüberschreitende Adoption der digitalen Signatur nicht auf dies Art und Weise realisierbar ist.Today we live in an e-era, where the topic of Internet security and safety is inevitable. To realize a secure transaction and contract signing via Internet, it is necessary to give a great attention to the subject of digital signatures. In this context, 44 countries have been surveyed (27 EU member countries, 3 EU-member candidates, 14 other European countries) and a structured synopsis has been compiled in the dimensions legal framework, technical standards and market penetration. To obtain a general idea about the current state in the country, an Internet research was started. Furthermore, a list of questions was sent out via e-mail to different companies and agencies and a lot of contacts were established. The collected information was pulled together and compiled in the following study. For purpose of clarity, the study is structured in-depth and subjective interpretations are left out to let the facts speak for themselves. To gain a fast overview, tables sum up the countries development concerning electronic signature standards and rating them in regard of available information and development in different categories. The present study demonstrates quite clearly that no wide-area implementation of digital signatures has been achieved yet, mostly because of lacking technical interoperability of systems, processes and configurations, while the uniform legal framework is certainly not the barrier. It is not very hard to understand that the benefits of a broad adoption of digital signature in the European economic area cannot be realized this way

Schwerpunkt-Report über das Jahr ... / Wirtschaftsinformatik und Informationswirtschaft / Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften

Im Zentrum des Schwerpunktes stehen die Beschreibung, Erklärung und Gestaltung von Informationserstellungs- und -verarbeitungsprozessen, insbesondere soweit sie durch moderne Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken unterstützt werden. Diese Prozesse dienen zum einen der unmittelbaren Bedürfnisbefriedigung durch Information sowie zum anderen der Koordination physischer Wertschöpfung. Die schnelle Fortentwicklung der IuK-Systeme sowie die rasante Verbreitung ihrer Nutzung führen vielfach zu tief greifenden Veränderungen der Geschäftsabläufe und darüber hinaus des gesellschaftlichen Lebens. Aufgabe des Schwerpunktes ist hierbei, die Nutzenpotenziale neuer Informations- und Kommunikationstechniken sowie deren Anwendung insbesondere in Wirtschaft und Verwaltung zu analysieren und eigene Gestaltungsvorschläge zu unterbreiten. Dies gilt auch für die Gestaltung und Auswahl der institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen von Informationserstellungs- und - verarbeitungsprozessen

Globalization and E-Commerce II: Environment and Policy in Germany

Due to its economic power as the largest economy in Europe and third largest in the world, Germany inevitably will play an important role in e-commerce. After the improvement and diffusion of high-speed Internet access, like ISDN or DSL, Germany enjoys more ISDN telephone lines than any country; also the highest DSL per capita ratio, in Europe. Germany includes a large, highly educated and relatively wealthy population, which is an important prerequisite for successful e-commerce activities. Due to foreign language skills in the German population (every pupil is required to learn English; a large number know basic French or Spanish, too), the language barrier to using international Web sites is small. Moreover, the German education system puts increasing emphasis on information and communications technology (ICT) skills. Invention activity in some areas of ICT shows signs of improvement. Starting from a low level, patent activity in mobile communications and the Internet grew faster in Germany than anywhere else in Europe. This growth could be viewed as an early indicator of strengthening the mobile e-commerce sector in Germany and may be interpreted as an important effort in catching-up with overall e-commerce development. More than 80% of the GNP is created in mid-sized companies (Mittelstand), which traditionally are considered as more flexible and innovative than large enterprises. The majority of these small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access the Internet. Looking at Internet penetration, German SMEs are at the top together with SMEs in Scandinavian countries. The central position of Germany as a hub to Europe together with the excellent public and private transport infrastructure is a competitive advantage to attract foreign investments. Germany follows the innovation model be the best imitator of successful developments and within this course exploits the competitive advantage achievable through integration. After e-commerce technologies proved successful, Germany caught up in developing its relevant infrastructure and is now gaining momentum

Die ersten Jahrzehnte der Public-Key-Cryptography : Über die widersprüchliche Durchsetzung der kryptologischen Erfindungen neuer Richtung

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Internet Voting in Austria: History, Development, and Building Blocks for the Future

This dissertation aims to investigate the origins of Internet voting, analyze several deployments of Internet voting technology in Austria and identify - based on these accumulated experiences - building blocks that can be useful in decision-making on and planning of future uses of Internet voting technology within Austria and throughout the world. In line with the goals of this thesis, it will address the following research questions: - How did Internet voting originate? - What experiences were noted in the process of implementing Internet voting in Austria? - What building blocks can be identified for developing future Internet voting both inside and outside Austria? Internet voting is part of a transformational movement that applies information and communication technologies to daily business activities. It is only logical that elections are also considered for applying electronic (remote) communication technologies. While early efforts were driven by the belief that elections could make easy use of the Internet, it was shown that while the principles have to be interpreted and consequently applied in a different way, the same principles can still be derived for Internet voting, like integrity, secrecy, transparency, accountability and public confidence. The need to have forms of decision making in electronic networks has been identified in its beginnings and has received continuous attention throughout its development. At the height of the excitement about the possibilities of the Internet, countries raced to become the first to run a legally binding election using electronic voting systems. While several candidates emerged (e.g., Costa Rica, Bosnia Herzegovina, Germany, United States), Estonia was victorious in 2005. To date, Estonia is the only country that has introduced this form of voting without any preconditions or other limitations. In Austria, the intentions to use information and communication technologies (ICT) in elections concentrated on parliamentary affairs. Spurred by the efforts around student elections in Germany, Austria sought to conduct Internet voting in 2000. In the years thereafter, considerable progress was made at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU), and this progress spearheaded the debate in the early 2000s. At the beginning in the years 2001-2003, technical solutions were sought to verify voter eligibility and maintain voter privacy. Later, more sophisticated algorithms were developed, and functionalities like quotas in election commissions were added. The Federation of Students' elections in 2009 were a remarkable event that demonstrated highly contentious political debate around the topic. This debate continued after the elections, which were held in May 2009 and suffered from the intense debate and protests and consequential organizational shortcomings. The experiences also showed that accurate legal regulations are needed to show interaction with the constitutional legal texts and to ensure accountability to a remote electronic voting channel through legal means. International standards were a first step, but regulations based on actual experience were needed to show how remote electronic voting channels could be realized and how to avoid problems identified in pilot implementations. This practical knowledge also shows that sophisticated algorithms are not always the key to success. Rather, several key implementations make use of very basic technical means to realize the tasks given by law. One should not forget about the voters. They not only need to use such systems, but they also need to understand the processes in order to build trust. The constitutional court ruling lifted the election and ruled that the respective ordinance was not in line with the requirements of the law. Hereby, the court established higher requirements resulting barriers for offering Internet voting channels in future elections. While the election administration system, which was a pre-requisite for the Internet voting system, was discontinued in the election thereafter, it returned in recent elections where postal voting was offered. On the basis of the aforementioned experiences, twelve building blocks were compiled discovered. These include design decisions, such as the following: the form of electronic voting, adaptations of the legal base, the technical means for identification and secrecy, observation, control functions for the electoral commission, evaluation processes, transparency functions, ballot sheet designs, controlling the organizational context as well as providing options for planning and implementation. This framework therefore facilitates and eases the generation of feasibility studies and other analyses and decision making ahead of using Internet voting in an election. With little adaption it can also be used for the use of other voting technologies. This work utilizes theoretical work and knowledge from adaptations of legal texts. These texts cover a wide range of topics, including methods for implementing identification and anonymity functions in remote electronic voting as well as testing and certifying systems that require transparent procedures. The findings also show that implementing remote an electronic voting system is a complex topic. It requires trust in the election administration; otherwise, suspicion will arise when more technology is introduced and implemented in an election process. Remote electronic voting is one of the most challenging information technology (IT) projects

Die digitale Signatur in der Schweiz - Grundlagen, kommerzielle Nutzungsanforderungen : Bedürfnisse und Handlungsempfehlungen zur Förderung der breiten geschäftlichen Anwendung

Die digitale Transformation ist im Schweizer Unternehmensmarkt längst Realität. Geschäftsprozesse werden zugunsten maximaler Effizienz digitalisiert. Digitale Arbeitsprozesse ermöglichen schnelle und kostengünstige administrative Durchlaufzeiten. Geschäfte sollen jederzeit und von überall her komfortabel und digital abgeschlossen werden können. Die digitale Signatur unterstützt diese Prozessdigitalisierung und ermöglicht, anstelle der traditionellen Handunterschrift, eine gegenseitige geschäftliche Übereinkunft vollständig digital zu erzielen. Diese Masterarbeit untersucht, welche Anforderungen ausgewählte Vertreter von Schweizer Unternehmen an eine breite geschäftliche Verwendung der digitalen Signatur stellen. Für die wichtigsten aus aktueller Angebotsperspektive nicht oder nur teilweise erfüllbaren Anforderungen werden Handlungsempfehlungen zugunsten der Förderung der breiten geschäftlichen Verwendung der digitalen Signatur abgeleitet

Joined-Up ICT Innovation in Government: An analysis of the creation of eIDM systems from an Advocacy Coalition and social capital perspective

This chapter introduces the subject of this thesis – joined-up ICT innovation in the public sector. The first section demonstrates that scientists and policy makers fully agree that ICT innovation should be a joint effort involving multiple public sector actors. To solve today’s urgent social problems, specific government agencies have to jointly rethink and improve practices – including their ICTs. However, as section two demonstrates, there are some severe barriers to joined-up ICT innovation. Evaluation studies consistently show that government agencies often fail to realize cooperative change. The third section provides a review of literature that attempts to explain the difficulties. The conclusion is that current public administration theories merely provide a fragmented picture of determining variables. The Advocacy Coalition Framework is introduced as it aims to overcome this theoretical fragmentation. The framework offers a broad overview of all kinds of factors that determine policy change. A confrontation between the variables of the model and innovation literature reveals strong similarities, which indicate that the model can also be applied to ‘innovation’. The fourth section identifies a critique of the social subsystem of the model. Social capital theory is introduced in order to address this critique as it can contribute to the operationalisation of the Advocacy Coalition Framework and hence strengthen its explanatory value. In section five, the unit of analysis is confined to a specific joined-up ICT innovation, namely the joint development of electronic identification systems. Section six defines the central research question, which combines the key elements: (a) the difficulties of joined-up ICT innovations, (b) the use of the Advocacy Coalition Framework to explain those difficulties and (c) social capital theory to enhance the framework. The chapter concludes with the theoretical and social relevance of the study