Investing in Security Solutions - Can Qualified ElectronicSignatures be Profitable for Mobile Operators?

摘要

Electronic signatures are an established method to ensure the integrity and accountability of electronic transactions. Realizingrntheir potential, the European Parliament and the Council enacted the directive 1999/93/EC in 1999, providing legalrnrequirements for a common introduction of electronic signatures in Europe. However, so far the signature market has failedrnmiserably. Mobile electronic signatures are often seen as a potential and promising way to provide market acceptance forrnelectronic signatures. This paper proposes an infrastructure for qualified mobile electronic signatures that does not require thernmobile operator to act as a certificate service provider (CSP). The user can freely choose a CSP and add the signaturernfunctionality along with the required certificates later on demand. However, mobile operators will only invest in thisrninfrastructure, if they expect a return on investment (ROI). Therefore, based on our proposed infrastructure and using distinctrnscenarios, we conducted an investment analysis for mobile operators forecasting the net present value and the internal rate ofrnreturn of the investment. Our forecast shows that issuing signature capable smart cards can be quite profitable for a mobilernoperator.