Straumurinn (X-Road) is a data transfer layer designed to facilitate the communication between information systems in a secure manner, enabling organizations to provide digital services.

Straumurinn is the basis of a central service portal for the citizens of the country. The emphasis is on treating all citizens equally. Straumurinn is the basis for the citizens of Iceland to be able to access all public services in one place via a central service portal.

All government agencies, municipalities and enterprises in Iceland can use Straumurinn to transfer data between themselves with the aim of improving services to the people of Iceland.

Development of Straumurinn

Iceland is a member of NIIS (Nordic Institute for Interoperability Solutions) which is working on the development of Straumurinn X-Road. Straumurinn is developed by Estonia and Finland for public services and has been in use since 2002. The implementation of Straumurinn (X-Road) in Iceland officially began in November 2018 when Bjarni Benediktsson, Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, signed a collaboration agreement with Finland and Estonia.

Data security

Communication between institutions and companies on Straumurinn (X-Road) is ensured by encrypted communication, where the central services of Digital Iceland connect the relations between service providers and service recipients in a standardised manner.

Data Integrity
Integrity of data is ensured by direct communication between both parties without intermediaries, the service provider's data is always up to date and accessible to the recipient to whom the service provider has authorised access.

Traceability
The communications of both parties are fully traceable in between and it is clear who and when the service recipient uses the data as the communication is time-stamped by the central reference server of Digital Iceland.

Security system
Straumurinn has a multi-modal security system: user authentication and identification, data encryption and time-stamped functions ensuring traceability.