The HTTPS information security standard ensures that visitors can verify they are interacting with a genuine government website and prevents malicious actors from intercepting data exchanged between the visitor and the site. It also protects visitors against spoofing (the falsification of characteristics to temporarily assume a false identity).
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the Government, or PKIoverheid (PKIo), enables reliable digital communication with, by, and within the Dutch government. PKIoverheid is an infrastructure based on digital certificates. Public and private Trust Service Providers (TSPs) within the PKIoverheid system ensure the reliable issuance of PKIo certificates.
The PKIoverheid Policy Authority, managed by Logius, issues these certificates under strict conditions and oversight. PKIo certificates have various applications, including:
- authenticating individuals,
- securing websites,
- enabling secure encrypted message exchange between servers, and
- digitally signing or timestamping documents.
The Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK) has commissioned research into the use of PKIoverheid certificates, including an analysis of opportunities to increase their adoption, potentially by making their use mandatory. The report is complete, and the results are available here (in Dutch).
