YEARS OF EUROPEAN ONLINE ANNÉES DE EN LIGNE ...

FINLAND
A system called PtJ (Government Decision-making System) is the network
for electronic legislative procedures. the irst PtJ was established in 1995 and
the new PtJ2 was introduced in 2005, based on Documentum software. the
draft laws are transferred within the system from the ministries to government
sessions and on to the Parliament in structured XmL format. the tool for the
actual drafting is microsoft word, with tailor-made templates and macros.
6. thE USE Of SECURE SERVERS AND CERtIfICAtES IN thE
DELIVERy Of ELECtRONIC LEGAL GAZEttES
the use of secure servers or secure protocol in the delivery of electronic
legal gazettes ensures the reliability of any electronic document source and the
transfer of data from the server, e.g. from the server of the legal gazette. A secure
server provides secure connections and the data in the in-transit process
between the user and the server is encrypted.
SSL (secure socket layer) server authentication allows users to conirm a
web server’s identity. SSL-enabled client software, such as a web browser, can
automatically check that a server’s certiicate and public ID are valid and have
been issued by a certiicate authority (CA) — such as VeriSign, thawte or
Geotrust — listed in the client software’s list of trusted CAs. SSL server authentication
is essential for secure e-commerce or e-government transactions.
An encrypted SSL connection requires all information sent between a client
and a server to be encrypted by the sending software and decrypted by the
receiving software, protecting private information from interception over the
Internet. In addition, all data sent over an encrypted SSL connection is protected
with a mechanism for detecting tampering — that is, for automatically
determining whether the data has been altered in transit.
Secure sessions and server IDs work in the following way.
1. A user contacts the site of the legal gazette (‘LG’) and accesses a secured
URL — a page secured by a Server ID (indicated by a URL that begins with
‘https:’ instead of just ‘http:’ or by a message from the browser).
2. the LG server responds, automatically sending the user the digital certiicate
of the LG site, which authenticates the site.
3. the web browser of the user generates a unique ‘session key’ to encrypt
all communications with the LG site.
4. the browser encrypts the session key itself with the site’s public key so
that only the site can read the session key.
01_2007_5222_txt_ML.indd 120 6-12-2007 15:13:58