{"id":2295,"date":"2016-05-26T17:44:41","date_gmt":"2016-05-26T09:44:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gergely.imreh.net\/blog\/?p=2295"},"modified":"2016-05-27T20:11:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-27T12:11:46","slug":"taiwan-citizen-digital-certificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gergely.imreh.net\/blog\/2016\/05\/taiwan-citizen-digital-certificate\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan Citizen Digital Certificate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Taiwan has a very interesting attitude towards technology (for better or worse<\/a>), and it is fun to try out anything new that comes up here (for a certain definition of “fun”). When the news hit late last month, that the National Immigration Agency opens Internet ID application to foreign residents<\/a>, I was there to get mine as soon as it was available. The “Internet ID” refers to a “Citizen Digital Certificate”, also called MOICA<\/a>, a smart card that supposed to make a lot of services available through a web browser or other government-produced software (e.g. filing taxes online). For Taiwanese citizens MOICA seems to be available at least since 2003 (according to the news report<\/a> I’ve managed to dig up), but this is the first time it available for us foreigners living here.<\/p>\n

In this rather graphic post\u00a0I try to summarize the process of getting a MOICA card as a foreigner in Taiwan, setting it up, and some (opinionated) lessons to learn from it.<\/p>\n

The Process<\/h2>\n

The process of getting and setting up the card is outlined in this leaflet that I’ve picked up.<\/p>\n

\"MOICA<\/a>
Click to see large scan. Wow.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though – not surprisingly – in practice everything is a lot more complicated than these 8 bulletpoints.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

There’s also a Chinese version of this leaflet, just for the record.<\/p>\n

\"Chinese<\/a>
Chinese language version of the application info. Click to see the full version.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Registration<\/h3>\n

As it is included in the National Immigration Agency’s (NIA) own announcement<\/a>, the process is kicked off by visiting one of the service centers (here’s a list<\/a>, but people generally know which center they belong to, they have to), and requesting the card. Even though I was applying (in the Taipei center) on one of the first days when it was available, there was no surprise or difficulty. Picked up a number, the at the counter forms were filled out for me all digitally, and then got a receipt like this (sensitive info blacked out here):<\/p>\n

\"MOICA<\/a><\/p>\n

It included my application number, name, email, phone number, and a registration code (the last blacked out line) which was needed for the online payment. This is because, for some reason, the bill cannot be settled at the time of the application, but needed to be done online.<\/p>\n

Payment<\/h3>\n

The card is only sent out to me after the online payment, and if no cash is received in 14 days, the application is cancelled. Thus I wanted to settle things very quickly. Originally I thought, based on the info I’ve received at the NIA that I will receive an email or other electronic communication with further info on how to pay. Instead, for the next 2-3 days I got a daily nudge message that I need to pay, but no information on how<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"SMS
SMS nudge to pay for my MOICA application<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Visiting the MOICA website for foreigners (“aliens”)<\/a> does not make me smarter, it looks like this below, with a couple of options on the side, but no “PAY HERE” or similar.<\/p>\n

\"MOICA<\/a>
MOICA website greeting screen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After one and a half weeks the time was running out for the application, so gave in and called the 0800-080-117<\/a> number from the message for help. They did help: see the funny looking\u00a0Chinese-only banner with two cartoon figures? Have to click that, and then go onto this Chinese-only interface to continue.<\/p>\n

\"MOICA<\/a>
The “helper kids” page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using the code from the receipt and logging in, there was an online payment interface. I really should have taken a screenshot, but so taken aback by it, that I forgot. It’s a HTTPS page (for a change), with big (Chinese-only) announcement that “because the site uses SSL your data is completely safe and nothing to worry about”, plus Chrome giving me a big security warning that the website’s SSL settings are vulnerable. Who do you trust in this situation? Rhetorical question: of course Chrome but still pay the government…<\/p>\n

At least their messaging service works a lot better than their website, within seconds I got dual language notification that the credit card payment went through fine.<\/p>\n

\"Confirmation
Confirmation message<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There’s not much to do after this, but wait till the postman arrives with the card.<\/p>\n

Card Activation<\/h3>\n

The card arrived with two page of instructions, sticked in the middle, highlighting the security features of the card.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The card was sticked on the middle of this page of instructions (click for full size)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a side note, not sure how all these visual security features (which likely serve paper bills well) help with computer security, since the only important part of that card is the chip inside, but I digress.<\/p>\n

The minimum system requirements are Windows XP SP3 and IE 6.0. I’m using Linux<\/a>, but fortunately have an XP in VirtualBox<\/a>, and Internet Explorer on it, so might just work. The instructions said to go to the MOICA website again, and activate the card there. Except, there was no activation-related menu there at all, and the instructions remain tight-lipped. I was hoping that the back-side of the instructions, that are in Chinese, will contain some clues, though it turns out that they are even less useful, if that’s possible.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The back page of the instructions with more info and Chinese (click for full size)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s time for another phone call to the 0800 number, and turns out that the “helper kids” are the ones we need again. Clicking that Chinese-only banner on the otherwise dual-language website brings up the page that I used earlier, but now instead of logging in, have to click the last menu point on the left, saying \u6191\u8b49IC\u5361\u958b\u5361<\/strong>. That takes me back to a page that looks very similar to the original MOICA page – except the menu is full. Indeed, the first page only contains “Commonly Used Functions<\/strong>” in the menu and have to do this extra trip to get a complete list of available “Certificate Procedure<\/strong>“[sic].<\/p>\n

\"MOICA<\/a>
MOICA activation interface (click for full size)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here the activation can begin in earnest. First steps are:<\/p>\n