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Wednesday, March 13, 2002 HKPost plans for e-cert demand rise ANH-THU PHAN Hongkong Post (HKPost) plans to issue a tender for upgrading its electronic certificate (e-cert) system in anticipation of a heavy increase in use once identity cards go digital early next year. Y.C. Lam, senior manager at HKPost's Certificate Authority, the unit in charge of issuing e-certs, which can be used for authentication and encryption when conducting business over the Internet, said about 50,000 certificates had been issued and the system's capacity was about 10 times that number. HKPost wanted to be prepared for an expected "critical mass of e-certs issued" when Hong Kong's 6.8 million residents were offered the option of having digital certificates stored on their ID cards. The certificates would be offered free for the first year, while each year of renewal would cost HK$50. "I think this will be a request for proposals for a technical upgrade of the system," Mr Lam said. He did not say when the tender would be posted, but that probably it would be open for the standard government policy of six weeks. The present certificate system, built at a cost of HK$55 million by Hewlett-Packard and GTE Cybertrust, and unveiled in 2000, did not have many users in its first year because of a lack of applications, Mr Lam said. In the past year, HKPost introduced specialised certificates issued through banks and mobile certificates to be used with mobile phones and personal digital assistants. To promote the use of digital certificates and digital signatures, the Government requires them for the submission of documents to Government departments online and for functions such as the filing of tax returns. A separate "digital government" system, with kiosks to allow access in public places such as libraries and Mass Transit Railway stations, was built by Compaq Computer and makes heavy use of e-certs. Sin Chung-kai, the legislator representing the information technology functional constituency, said e-cert adoption rate was too slow, though their addition to digital ID cards should stimulate use. Since the Government awarded the first contract for the introduction of digital identification cards to Pacific Century CyberWorks last month, several parties have expressed concern about privacy and security related to the information to be carried on the cards. Mr Lam said security measures taken in HKPost's present e-cert system were adequate. Mr Sin said: "I think our system is properly protected from hacking and other unauthorised access." He said existing laws prohibited exchange of Hong Kong residents' personal data between Government departments and that no new laws were needed to protect privacy with the introduction of digital ID cards. However, amendments to the electronic transactions and registration of persons ordinances are being considered. The change to the transactions law would put biometrics and personal identification numbers on the same legal footing as handwritten signatures and digital certificates, while the changes to the Registration of Persons Ordinance would include limits on how the personal information could be used. In the hope of stimulating the use of e-certs, HKPost recently waived initial fees for businesses registered with the Trade Development Council at tdctrade.com. Separately, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is setting up its own smart ID card system for students, staff and faculty. The multi-application cards are built on the Java platform and support digital certificates issued by the university. HKPost's e-certs use public key infrastructure technology, which ensures that messages and documents have not been tampered with or seen during transit. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]