A New eIDAS Beginning for QWACs

Zusammenfassung

With the EU regulation eIDAS 1 , the Qualified Certificate for Website Authentication (QWAC) was introduced as a qualified trust service for the first time in 2014. Unfortunately, this important instrument for securing the European Digital Single Market and expressing the EU’s sovereignty has continued to fall short of expectations and its potential, so the EU Commission is taking important measures to strengthen it with the revision of eIDAS. This article describes the current status and the planned strengthening measures of the EU Commission. In addition to these, this article also identifies complementary options including a design proposal for a new browser User Interface (UI) for QWACs, additions to the eIDAS revision, and the concept of a temporary or permanent recognition of extended validated (EV) 2 certificates by the EU as a product with functions comparable to the QWAC.