Secure Government Login for Dutch COVID-19 Vaccination Portal

Secure Government Login for Dutch COVID-19 Vaccination Portal - Case Study

A customer portal for COVID-19 vaccination data

Based on their existing expertise concerning the National Immunisation Programme and the seasonal flu jab, the RIVM was tasked by the Dutch government with coordinating, providing and monitoring COVID-19 vaccinations. Under Dutch public health policy, all citizens are entitled to access a transparent overview of their personal medical and healthcare records. This is why the RIVM needed to develop a customer portal where citizens can look up their vaccination data. By early April 2021, the portal was ready to be used.

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17 Million

Citizens

6 User groups with different eIDs

1 Vaccination portal

Secure access to health information

Privacy is at the heart of the RIVM’s vaccination portal. Here, everyone can view their own registered vaccination details by logging in with DigiD, the Dutch government eID, provided that they granted permission for their data to be registered. Logging in is always based on Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). Citizens can choose to use their DigiD App with Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP) or ID-Card reading (using Near-Field Communication (NFC) or USB card reader) or they can use a TOTP sent by SMS.

Health professionals also have access to certain data, and citizens can see who has viewed their vaccination data. The portal was launched to provide information about COVID-19 vaccines, but is now updated with other available information, including information about child vaccinations.

6 user groups with 3 different eIDs

The Dutch COVID-19 vaccination programme is a nationwide operation, with millions of stakeholders involved. The portal unites information for all these different individuals. Not only citizens, but also healthcare professionals have access to the portal, where they can order new supplies of vaccines.

This is why the portal offers multiple login options to suit each different user group: Citizens use their DigiD login; health professionals use their Unique Healthcare Provider ID (known in Dutch as UZI-pas); and organisations can use eHerkenning (eRecognition), the Dutch government ID for businesses.

Thales: a trusted government partner

Given the magnitude and impact of the project, reliability and scalability were important requirements. The Thales OneWelcome Identity Platform was chosen to provide the login functionality for the platform. As one of the largest eHerkenning brokers in the Netherlands, Thales was involved in the project from the start, as a trusted, certified government partner.

In addition to eHerkenning capabilities, the Thales OneWelcome Identity Platform also provides DigiD access to citizens and UZI-pas access for healthcare providers. Because of the highly sensitive nature of the information being shared on the vaccination platform, Thales ensures that the security and privacy verification are extremely thorough. After ensuring that the login functionality could offer the right level of safety and user-friendliness, Thales helped implement it in just weeks.

RIVM at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and Environment (known by its Dutch abbreviation, RIVM) has a leading role in infectious disease control, national prevention and population screening programmes.

As a trusted advisor, they support citizens, health professionals and local governments in the challenge of keeping the population healthy. This has put the RIVM at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19 in the Netherlands. The institute is also responsible for administering COVID-19 vaccinations across the country.