Trustworthy Communication Channels for the Electronic Safe

Abstract

The transition from the traditional task oriented delivery of single government services to a process‑oriented delivery of well sized service bundles is common for modern eGovernment implementations. Concerning the European Services Directive (DIRECTIVE 2006/123/EC) these service bundles are tailored to cover the needs of companies trying to offer their services in other EU member states. Nevertheless this approach is applicable to many other life circumstances. As process oriented service chains require well suited data capture and data sharing mechanisms, the Electronic Safe as a fundamental eGovernment infrastructure comes into play. The Electronic Safe is seen from a citizens viewpoint as a unique instrument, that makes it easy to control data flows between the citizen and her communication partners in a trustworthy and privacy conserving way. Previous work showed how to implement such a critical infrastructure in a decentralized and distributed manner, to satisfy strong confidentiality and privacy requirements. This paper focuses on the ability to bind the functionality of the Electronic Safe to the trustworthiness of its underlying hardware and software stack including its secure communication channels. We show how to use the mutual attestation mechanisms designed by the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) with the Safe Infrastructure and their communication protocols, while keeping the privacy features that the Safe Owner appreciates.