Estonia has frozen the use of over half of its citizens' national ID cards after a security flaw was discovered. The decision has affected 7,60,000 Estonians, who now have been asked to update the mandatory ID card.
The ID cards that have been affected are those which were issued between October 2014 to October 2017. A report from Engadget stated that experts found the flaw in the chip used in the ID.
The flaw, as per the report, enables hackers and fraudsters to commit identity theft. There were rumours, from as early as September, that the new chips in ID cards are flawed due to defect from the part of the manufacturer.
While there are no reports yet about anybody using the ID cards for any wrong purpose, the country is not taking any risks, as the cards are used by Estonians to gain access to various services including online banking and online voting.
The country blocked the use of most of the ID cards last weekend to fix the problem. And while the online process for updating flawed cards is taking time due to system errors, prompting people to approach governmemt offices, priority is being given to those belonging to the medical profession and other frequent users.
In a statement as per Engadget, Estonia's Prime Minister Juri Ratas said that “the functioning of an e-state is based on trust and the state cannot afford identity theft happening to the owner of an Estonian ID card... by blocking the certificates of the ID cards at risk, the state is ensuring the safety of the ID card."
Estonia which is situated in Northern Europe was formerly part of the USSR. A developed nation, Estonia has one of the advanced IT talent pool and ranks highly in numerous social and economical indicators.
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