March 1, 2018
BTK President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, speaking at the Electronic Signature and Registered Electronic Mail Workshop hosted by BTK, stated that the electronic signature is indispensable especially in transactions conducted in the public sector.
The Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) hosted the “Electronic Signature and Registered Electronic Mail Workshop.” The program was attended by many representatives from universities and the sector.
Emphasizing that there is a greater lack of trust in transactions conducted in electronic environments, President Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan stated that these deficiencies leave consumers, businesses, and public administrations in doubt. Evaluating this situation as an obstacle to digitalization, Sayan said, “These problems lead to missing out on the opportunities that the digital economy can offer. At this point, the electronic signature application, which provides privacy, identity verification, data integrity, and non-repudiation, has emerged. In our country, with Law No. 5070 on Electronic Signature, the definition of secure electronic signature has been made, and secure electronic signature has been accepted as equivalent to handwritten signature. It has been stated that data created with Secure Electronic Signature will have the force of a promissory note and will be considered definitive evidence until proven otherwise.”
KEP Will Form the Infrastructure of e-Transformation Projects
Reminding that a total of 3,244,880 qualified electronic certificates had been produced by Electronic Certificate Service Providers by the end of 2017, President Sayan stated that the electronic signature has become indispensable for public institutions and organizations, and added: “However, although the use of these tools is easy and convenient, they remain insufficient in terms of proof in official transactions at public institutions or in transactions that have significant commercial consequences. Developed to meet this need, Registered Electronic Mail (KEP) stands out as a fundamental element that will form the infrastructure of electronic commerce and e-transformation projects being carried out in the public sector.”
“Electronic Signature is One of the Most Important Building Blocks of KEP”
Drawing attention to the benefits provided by KEP, Sayan said, “The secure electronic signatures used within the system are the basic building blocks in providing legal validity to the system as a whole. From this perspective, I believe it is impossible to pass without stating that the secure electronic signature, which gives legal validity to KEP processes, is one of the most important building blocks of KEP. The KEP system enables the sharing between parties of many documents in electronic environments, such as notifications, warnings, objections and similar declarations between merchants, confirmation letters, participation commitments, meeting invitations, contracts, official correspondence, e-notifications, e-invoices, with legal validity.”
President Sayan also touched upon the studies conducted in our country regarding KEP as follows: “In our country, opportunities for secure communication in electronic environments with KEP have been expanded; supported by the Turkish Commercial Code No. 6102 and secondary regulations made by our Institution, the legal validity of business and transactions conducted in electronic environments has been ensured. With our Turkish Commercial Code, companies have been obliged to use KEP in transactions conducted electronically. This provision has opened the way for KEP addresses to also be used as electronic notification addresses.”
Instruction for Public Institutions to Use KEP
Reminding that with the circular issued within the scope of the “e-Correspondence Project” for the widespread use of KEP, all public institutions and organizations were instructed to conduct their official correspondence in electronic environment and to use KEP as the inter-institutional transmission mechanism in correspondences except in special cases, Sayan added that BTK has prepared the “Draft Procedure and Principles Regarding Corporate Encryption and Electronic Seal Certificates Used in Document Sharing in Electronic Environment Between Public Institutions and Organizations” on this matter.