Estonian Prime Minister cancels visit to Poland due to ID card crisis

TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said on Tuesday that he called off a visit to Poland as a result of the detection of a potential security risk in the chip of the Estonian ID card.

Ratas offered his apologies to the prime minister of Poland and his Baltic colleagues, whom he was due to meet in Warsaw, saying that he considered it more important to remain at home to make the next decisions to solve the problem.

Ratas was scheduled on Tuesday at attend a meeting of the prime ministers of the Baltic countries and Poland in Warsaw and to speak at the Annual Baltic Conference on Defense (ABCD) in Tallinn.

The Estonian Information System Authority (RIA) said on Tuesday that an international group of researches on Aug. 30 notified it of the detection of a security risk which affects ID cards issued in Estonia since October 2014. The potential security risk affects ID cards issued since October 2014, including cards issued to e-residents, which number approximately 750,000.

Officials said that no actual identity theft has taken place.

Cards issued before Oct. 17, 2014 use a different chip and are not affected by the fault.

The risk does not affect Mobile ID, and ID cards continue to be functional.