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Qualified electronic signature (QES)

Qualified electronic signature (QES): practical guide on eIDAS 2.0, trust services and compliance — for IT, privacy and leadership.

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Levels of electronic signature

eIDAS defines simple (SES), advanced (AES) and qualified (QES) electronic signatures. Only QES has legal equivalence to a handwritten signature in the EU — relevant for notarial documents, HR, procurement and finance.

Technical and organisational requirements

QES requires qualified certificates, secure signature creation devices or cloud HSM with appropriate controls, and processes for signer identification. Auditors and supervisors look at logging, key management and certificate lifecycle.

Choices for SMEs and enterprise

Many organisations buy QES via a QTSP or SaaS rather than operating PKI themselves. Document which processes require QES, which vendor supplies which evidence, and how you fallback if the service fails.

Checklist

  • Inventory eID, QES and QTSP use
  • Map vendors and trust list status
  • Link to ISMS, GDPR and risk register
  • Plan DPIA where wallet or identity data
  • Test fallback and incident scenarios

Practical next step

For qualified electronic signature, ISO Ready links identity, trust and security measures in one ISMS — with actions, evidence and vendors toward audit. Run the readiness scan on iso-ready.nl.

More on eIDAS 2.0

Key takeaways

  • Inventory trust services and wallet use before major projects.
  • Link eIDAS to ISMS, GDPR and vendor register — one trail.
  • Test fallback and logging; QES outage is a business continuity scenario.

Veelgestelde vragen

When does eIDAS 2.0 apply to Qualified electronic signature (QES)?
When you offer or consume digital identity, wallet attributes, QES or qualified trust services in the EU — alongside national implementation timelines.
Does eIDAS replace ISO 27001?
No. eIDAS regulates trust services; ISO 27001 helps the ISMS and evidence for security controls around PKI, logging and vendors.
How does this relate to national eID schemes?
National schemes remain; eIDAS 2.0 adds the EUDI wallet and EU-wide interoperability. Plan transition and fallback.
What role does GDPR play?
Identity and attribute data are personal data. DPIA, records and minimisation remain leading.
How do we start with Qualified electronic signature (QES)?
Inventory current trust services, map vendors and link to ISMS and privacy records before rolling out new wallet or QES processes.

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