NemID to drop problematic platform

After a series of problems for users – and the threat of fines for the most recent snafu – login service to abandon Java

admin

Oct 21, 2013

Users of the NemID login system who installed the most recent update of the Java plug-in on their computers spent several days last week trying in vain to access their online bank accounts or tax information.

Nets, the company that operates NemID, now says that it will be dropping the problematic Java platform next year.

“We are currently developing a new solution that will be ready to go by April and will be phased in gradually during 2014,” Cecile Christensen, the head of Digitaliseringsstyrelsen, the government's digitalisation agency, told Politiken newspaper.

Christensen said that the new system will be based on JavaScript instead of Java, and that the platform is being changed so that NemID can be used on tablets and smartphones. She said the change was not due to the recent problems.

Customers who updated to the latest Java version were unable to use NemID for three days last week. Windows users who had upgraded their Java were advised to uninstall the programme and reinstall an older version, a suggestion that was criticised by IT security experts who said the older version of Java had security holes that could be exploited by hackers. There was no solution offered for Mac users, who earlier this year experienced problems with version 6 of the Java software.

NemID was developed by Nets on behalf Digitaliseringsstyrelsen and the banking sector. After last week's problems, the company may now face a fine for not living up to its contract.

“We have promised a certain amount of up-time, and if we do not deliver, we must accept that it will cost us,” Nets spokesperson Søren Winge told Politiken.

Winge said that he was satisfied with NemID’s overall 99.8 percent average up-time, but that three-day shut down “was of course not satisfactory”.

Christensen said that Nets needs to get its house in order.

"It is not satisfactory that the system does not work,” she told DR Nyheder. “There are provisions for penalties in the contract, and we will look at them when we have an overview of the situation.”