Today, we are simply used to being able to deal with most of our concerns digitally. However, it is not uncommon for visits to the authorities to involve a personal appearance, paperwork and a lot of administrative work. With its “E-Gov-Portal”, the canton of Solothurn has created a virtual counter that removes precisely this hurdle. Find out in this article how United Security Providers supported this project.
Digitizing cantonal services
The canton of Solothurn had set itself the goal of implementing a virtual counter, the so-called “eGov portal“, through which citizens and companies could access the services of the cantonal administration. With the first services, debt collection register extracts and personal tax accounts could be made available digitally at the virtual counter for the first time.
Canton of Solothurn: Requirements for the virtual counter
The virtual counter is an intensive investment in the digitalization of the Solothurn authorities. The basis for this was the already used product “iGovPortal” from the association of the same name. The IT architecture of the overall system was designed by the Canton of Solothurn/Office for IT and Organization and refined with the integrator Softcom. The installation and configuration was carried out together with the individual contractors (Softcom, United Security Providers, aforms2web).
The virtual counter integrates transparent identification mechanisms for users. What does this mean in concrete terms?
There is no need to appear in person to obtain personal data, as the identification of the person is ensured by means of SwissID. The stored and verified SwissID enables access to counter and online services such as taxes, cantonal registers, motor vehicle inspection, etc.
SwissID and how it works
The services of the Canton of Solothurn are offered online via specific specialist applications and the forms server aforms2web. The canton provides specially designed authentication mechanisms that enable all applications and forms to be connected to the “iGovPortal” and users to be identified using SwissID.
Read also: FIDO 2.0 – password-free authentication
Security from cyber security specialists
Secure communication between and the flawless functioning of the components concerned have been ensured in combination with security requirements with the cyber security specialist United Security Providers.
When it comes to highly sensitive data such as personal data, the requirements for IT infrastructure security are extremely high. To meet these requirements, the Canton of Solothurn relies on the USP Secure Entry Server, which solves the issue of access management and protects against unauthorized data access. The authentication of natural persons and, in future, legal entities is carried out centrally on the eGov portal and the underlying specialist applications of the Canton of Solothurn.
Connected among professionals
A key point in this project is the orchestration of the systems involved. The actual registration process takes place on the SwissSign systems, where the user must also give their consent to the data used by the Canton of Solothurn.
The USP Secure Entry Server® plays the role of identity broker and SwissSign then returns the result of the login in the form of a modern <Bearer> token to the systems of the Canton of Solothurn, where it is evaluated and, if successful, automatically forwarded to the portal. The user has then successfully logged in and can use the numerous services of the online counter.
For the canton of Solothurn, it was important that the IdP, such as SwissID, was not connected directly, but that the USP Secure Entry Server® was used upstream as a strong protector. This scenario serves the canton of Solothurn as a basis for the future integration of other IdPs.