The use of digital signatures - as pointed out in a statement by the ministry - helps to further secure electronic transactions, reduce operating costs, as well as save time. All the steps for obtaining a digital signature through the new APED are described in detail on the platform aped.gov.gr.
The philosophy of the new APED reflects the broader strategy of the Ministry of Digital Government to upgrade the services of trust to the citizens and to improve their authentication processes. The operation of the platform follows the interventions of the Ministry of Digital Government regarding the authentication and the certification of the genuine signature of the citizen (trust services).
This includes the distribution:
- 150,000 new generation digital signatures to civil servants (more than 50,000 have already been distributed) and
- Over 506,000 new generation digital signatures in professional sectors (business representatives, lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc.) and citizens.
The same strategy includes:
- the services related to the digital documents of gov.gr (issuance of authorization and responsible statement, digital certificate of document and private contract) and
- the control of the validity of digital documents through gov.gr
It is noted that for the approval of the new APED, all the legal evaluation and certification procedures have been followed, both by an independent evaluator and by EETT, as required by the national legislation and the European e-IDAS Regulation. The new APED is operational in all versions of Windows and MacOS, while for the revocation of digital certificates it will operate on a 24-hour basis 7 days a week.
For the validity and expiration dates of the digital signatures, which have been issued until January 17, 2022, the citizens can be informed from the website of www.aped.gov.gr in the category "Announcements". In addition, it is emphasized that the supply of USB tokens by the citizens will continue to be done by the market providers and not by APED.
