- What exactly am I doing?
- Why do I have to provide personal information?
- What happens to the information I provide?
- What if I don't live in the State of Illinois?
- What if I've forgotten my password?
- Who do I call for help?
- Where do I find the necessary information on my driver’s license?
- Can I just request one digital ID for my company?
- Why does the information have to match my driver's license exactly?
- Why do I need to provide my weight?
- Does my password ever expire?
- Can I share my ID with others? After all, it's just a userid.
- What if my username and password don't seem to work?
- Is there any charge for the digital certificate?
You are creating a digital ID issued by the State of Illinois. This ID will allow you to access multiple systems within State government, and allow you to digitally sign legally binding transactions. This will enhance the use of the Internet for citizens doing government business with the State of Illinois.
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Because a digital ID has legal ramifications (i.e., signing capability), it is important to ensure that the person obtaining an ID is, in fact, the person they say they are. To do this, a certain amount of personal information is necessary to properly identify the citizen obtaining the ID.
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Any information you provide during the digital ID registration process is kept strictly confidential. Your driver’s license number and your shared secret/answer are used to allow you to recover your password in case you ever forget it. Personal information is never sold.
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You can still obtain a State of Illinois digital ID if you live in another state. Simply click on the “Accept, out-of State resident” button at the bottom of the subscriber agreement page. The out-of-state process does take a bit longer. Since we can't at this time validate a person’s identity with other State’s driver’s license facilities, it's necessary to fill out a paper form, have it notarized, and then mail the form to us. We process the forms as quickly as possible and get the proper authorization codes back to the citizen, along with instructions for creating the ID.
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If you are an Illinois resident, you can recover your password online at the State of Illinois Digital Signature Project Website. Look for the “forgot password” link on the left hand side of the page.
If you are not an Illinois resident, contact Customer Support;
PKI Digital Certificate - Customer Support hours:
Monday thru Sunday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
(800) 366-8768 or (217) 524-4784
Option 1 (IT) Information Technology, Option 3 – HFS and Digital Certificate Support
Please respond by saying “I need help recovering a password for a digital ID”.
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If you are having trouble accessing a particular system (e.g., Healthcare and Family Services' [Formerly known as Public Aid Dept] MEDI site, the TAXNET site run by the Department of Employment Security, etc), after you have successfully created your digital ID, contact the help desk for that particular State Agency at the number that is given on that application web site.
Contact Customer Support;
PKI Digital Certificate - Customer Support hours:
Monday thru Sunday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
(800) 366-8768 or (217) 524-4784
Option 1 (IT) Information Technology, Option 3 – HFS and Digital Certificate Support
Please respond by saying “I need help obtaining my digital certificate”.
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The digital ID issued by the State of Illinois are issued to individual citizens, not entities. You cannot generate an ID for a company.
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During the registration process, the information you provide is matched against the Secretary of State’s driver’s license database. This is done to ensure that someone is not simply using your name to create a digital ID and spoof your identity.
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When creating the registration process, we needed to have at least one piece of information that would not be easily guessed. Name and address are easily determined, as is hair color and eye color. We determined that the weight would be the one piece of information that someone would not be able to guess from the driver’s license.
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Your password will expire after 1 year. You should be prompted to change your password when the expiration period arrives.
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Your digital ID is not just another userid. Your digital ID has legal signature authority, which means that someone using your digital ID can sign legal documents and leave you responsible. You should never share your digital ID with anyone.
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Several things can cause the username/password combination to fail. If you get a message resembling “Authenticate User bad Input”, then the problem is probably with your password. In this case, you can change your password as mentioned above.
If you do not receive an error message, or if you keep getting sent back to the logon screen, you may have a problem with the Java Virtual Machine (VM) on your computer. To check this, go to the following URL:
http://www.java.com/en/download/help/testvm.jsp
If this test fails, or you are unsure of what version of the Java VM you have, it is highly recommended that you download the newest version of the Java VM before continuing. It is a free download, and can be obtained by clicking on the “Get it now” button at the above URL.
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The digital certificates provided by the State of Illinois are free, as is the encryption/signing software. If there are any questions regarding this policy or about obtaining the software, please call the number listed in the “Who do I call for help” FAQ above and inform the operator that you would like to speak to someone in the PKI section.
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