Finland vs Estonia: leading the way in eSignatures with Margus Pala and Johan Nyman – Podcast Episode 50

Let's talk about digital identity with Margus Pala, Founder and CEO at eID Easy, and Johan Nyman, Project Coordinator at Åbo Akademi University. In our 50th episode, Margus and Johan discuss eSignatures. Coming from Estonia and Finland, they explore the use (and potential future use) of simple, advanced and qualified eSignatures in two of the world's most digitally advanced countries. They also delve into how we can standardise the use of eSignatures in Europe, and advice for business owners on what to ask from an eSignature provider. Margus is from the world's most digitally advanced country, Estonia, and has seen the future many years ahead of most other countries. He started his professional career as a programming teacher before being part of multiple start-ups, including one unicorn - Playtech. He is also an officer in the Estonian army's National Guard Cyber Unit and has a master's degree in Cyber Security. For the last 5 years he has been running eID Easy, whose mission is to help everyone benefit from the future of digital identity and electronic signatures - not by breeding faster horses, but going to a whole new level. Find Margus on Twitter @MargusPala @e_id_easy and on LinkedIn. Johan's interest in digital identity, and specifically electronic signatures, is manifested in two areas: 1) the citizens’ perspective; how citizens can take advantage of national PKI (public key infrastructure) available on their ID cards to produce and use qualified electronic signatures, and 2) the public sector; how organisations working within the public realm, e.g. universities, can use national PKI for issuing e-signed documents, and also how they can raise their awareness and knowledge to handle qualified e-signatures in incoming correspondence from persons using e-signatures. He works as a project manager in university administration at Åbo Akademi, in Turku/Åbo, Finland. Find Johan on Twitter @Johan_Nym and on LinkedIn.. Margus refers to the Finnish Trust Network. Find out more about the FTN here - https://www.ubisecure.com/authentication/finnish-trust-network-ftn/ We’ll be continuing this conversation on Twitter using #LTADI – join us @ubisecure!