In order to ensure trustworthy, secure and evidential electronic communication between public authorities on the one hand and natural or legal persons on the other hand, as well as between public authorities among themselves, the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic operates the Information System of Data Boxes (also referred to as "ISDS"). In operating the ISDS, the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic and the cooperating entities are governed by operating rules, which are binding on them.
The public authorities are obliged to communicate with each other via ISDS, as well as with the client of the public administration, if they own a data box.
The method or process of setting up a data box varies according to the type of entity for which the data box is to be set up. The type of entity determines whether it is a data box established by law, i.e. automatically, or a data box established on request, according to the following table
| Type of entity | Type of data box in ISDS | Established |
|---|---|---|
| Public authority | OVM (10) | By law |
| Individual who is in the role of OVM | OVM_FO (14) | By law |
| Natural person acting as an OVM | OVM_PFO (15) | By law |
| Legal person in the role of OVM | OVM_PO (16) | By law |
| Legal entity registered in the Commercial Register | PO (20) | By law |
| Natural person in business as a lawyer | PFO_ADVOK (31) | By law |
| Individual entrepreneur - tax advisor | PFO_DANPOR (32) | By law |
| Natural person in business - insolvency administrator | PFO_INSSPR (33) | By law |
| Natural person in business - statutory auditor (self-employed or employee) | PFO_AUDITOR (34) | By law |
| Natural person | FO (40) | On request |
| Natural person in business | PFO (30) | On request |
| Legal person - on request | PO_REQ (22) | On request |
| OVM mailbox set up on request | OVM_REQ (13 | On request |
The Basic Registers Act requires that whenever a reference in the basic registers is changed, the relevant decision on the basis of which the reference was changed must also be entered in the Register of Rights and Obligations. The Ministry of the Interior is the editor of a single reference data in the data box agenda - the data box identifier. Therefore, whenever this data is entered and deleted in the Register of Residents or the Register of Persons, ISDS makes an entry in the Register of Rights and Obligations at the same time.
The Ministry of the Interior makes extensive use of basic register reference data for the purposes of data box management. The basic registers thus represent the most important source of data on the basis of which data boxes are established and made inaccessible and the identification data of data boxes and their users are updated.
Data boxes are established on the basis of information from the Register of Persons for entities for which a data box is established by law. An exception is a small number of entities that are not listed in the Register of Persons because they do not have a unique ID number (public authorities without legal personality).
On the basis of information from the Register of Persons, data boxes of entities for which a termination date has been filled in the Register of Persons are made inaccessible. Similarly, once the date of death of an individual has been entered in the Population Register, the data box is made inaccessible on that date.
For data boxes of all types, if the subject is registered in the basic registers, the data box identification data is taken automatically from the basic registers. Thus, changes in the name of the entity or the address of the registered office do not need to be reported to the Ministry - the changes are reflected automatically.
Authorised persons for the data boxes of those entities that are registered in the Register of Persons are updated according to changes in the list of statutory representatives kept for the entity in the Register of Persons. I.e. if a new statutory representative is entered into the register, an Authorised Person's account with the entity's data box is automatically created for him/her and, conversely, if a statutory representative is removed from the register, his/her Authorised Person's account with the data box is cancelled.
For all data box users, the Ministry of the Interior attempts to automatically identify them against the relevant entry in the Population Register. For those users where the identification has been successful, the current reference data from the Population Register is taken automatically. This means that, for example, in the case of a change of surname or residence address, the data box holder does not need to report anything to the Ministry of the Interior - the change is reflected automatically.
It is recommended that an authority use the ISDS system as an integral part of its electronic filing service. Authorities must communicate with each other via the ISDS system and their data boxes when exchanging documents and their guaranteed delivery. When exchanging data between authorities, data boxes are not used, but the linked data pool and its reference interface. It should be taken into account that all actions made via a data message towards the office from a VS client are considered to be electronically signed and no further forms of authorisation are required from the client.
ISDS allow, upon request to the subject administrator (Ministry of Interior), to use the identity space of data boxes to log into their own solutions - typically portals. This method of VS client identification and authentication will only be enabled until 1 July 2020, when the transitional provision of Act 250/2017 Coll., which introduces the obligation to use the National Identity Authority system, expires.
In order to ensure the digital continuity of the data message, similarly to the Document management system, from the user's (recipient's) point of view, it is always necessary to save not only the received document, but the entire data message (envelope + document). This whole data message can be trusted against the mailbox information system itself at any time, but the document itself cannot.