Russians fell in love with electronic signatures: 10 million people use simple e-signatures and another 5 million use qualified e-signatures, experts said during the news conference “Electronic signatures: A source of risks and a tool to realize digital economy potential” at RIA Novosti on June 4.
A simple electronic signature is used inside an information system, explained Anastasia Labutskaya, member of the Expert Council on cloud computing at the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media.
“For example, this type of electronic signature is used on the Gosuslugi state services portal and is obtained through an authorization procedure. The disadvantage of the simple e-signature is that it cannot be “extracted” from Gosuslugi and accepted elsewhere. Documents signed with a qualified e-signature are accepted at various agencies,” the expert said.
According to her, 10 million people use simple e-signatures – the users of the Gosuslugi system.
“Qualified electronic signatures are less popular; they are used by only 5 million people. Moreover, only 5% of them are individuals. The others are business representatives, and they find e-signatures convenient to interact with each other, as well as with government agencies. Most often they use e-signatures when submitting financial statements,” she said.