Database of Legislation

Article 3

Definitions

For the purposes of this Law the terms below are defined as follows:

1. "Electronic signatures" shall mean all data in electronic form attached to other electronic data or logically linked to the data and used for authentication and the integrity of the signed document;

2. "Advanced electronic signatures" shall be electronic signatures which:

a) are exclusively assigned to the specific owner of the signature code;

b) enable the identification of the owner of the signature code;

c) are produced with secure means which the owner of the signature code can keep under his sole and exclusive control, and

d) are linked to the data in such a manner that enables any subsequent alteration of the data to be easily detected;

3. "Qualified electronic signatures" shall be electronic signatures which:

a) are based on a qqualified certificate that is valid at the time of the creation of the signature; and

b) have been produced with a secure device for the creation of signatures;

4. "Signature codes" shall be unique electronic data such as private cryptographic codes or algorithms that are used to create an electronic signature.

5. "Signature test codes" shall be any electronic data such as public cryptographic codes or algorithms that are used to test and verify an electronic signature.

6. "Certificates" shall mean electronic certificates assigning signature test codes to a person and confirming his or her identity.

7. "Qualified certificates" are certificates issued by certification service providers in accordance with this Law, which fulfill the requirements set in this Law and adapted bylaws.

8. "Certification-service providers" shall be natural persons or legal entities who issue qualified certificates or qualified time stamps;

9. "Signature-code owners" shall be natural persons who own signature codes and to whom the appropriate signature test codes have been assigned in qualified certificates;

10. "Secure signature-creation devices" shall be software or hardware products created for qualified electronic certification that are used to store and apply the respective signature code, that meet or exceed the requirements of this Law and bylaws adopted under it.

11. "Signature-application components" shall be software and hardware products designed to:

a) assign data to the process of producing or testing qualified electronic signatures or

b) test qualified electronic signatures or check qualified certificates and display the results;

12. "Technical components for certification services" shall be software or hardware products designed to:

a) create signature codes and transfer them into a secure signature-creation device

b) keep qualified certificates available for testing and, if necessary, downloading by the public, or

c) produce qualified time stamps;

13. "Products for qualified electronic signatures" shall be secure signature-creation devices, signature-application components, and technical components for certification services;

14. "Qualified time stamps" are electronic certificates issued by a Certification Service Provider, to confirm the data sets are presented in a certain time;

15. "The National Authority for Electronic Certification", is the public institution that supervises the enforcement of this Law, set in article 10 of this Law;

16. "The Minister" is the minister responsible for the field of activity.