Germany's national digital identity infrastructure — the eIDAS European Digital Identity Wallet — abandoned static device certification for runtime behavioral attestation. This shift in security philosophy offers crucial lessons for AI agent deployment.

The core problem: you can certify a device today and have no idea what it will be tomorrow. Germany's solution, documented in their Mobile Device Vulnerability Management (MDVM) architecture, replaces point-in-time certification with continuous evaluation of device posture.

The Certification Trap

Traditional device certification operates on a flawed assumption: an auditor evaluates a device, assigns a certification level, and trust extends until expiration.…