'PKI-in-a-box' to help assist govt in securing data system

MANILA, Philippines - A public key infrastructure (PKI) company based in Sweden in partnership with a Malaysian firm is now helping the Advanced Science and Technology Institute (ASTI) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) secure the government's data system through the introduction of the "PKI -in-a-box" in the country.

According to PrimeKey Solutions AB (PrimeKey), "PKI-in-a box" is an innovative PKI appliance designed with the objective to simplify a PKI implementation with complete feature set needed to operate a full-blown PKI "out-of-the-box."

A PKI enables users of a basically unsecure public network such as the Internet to securely and privately exchange data and money through the use of a public and a private cryptographic key pair that is obtained and shared through a trusted authority.

The PKI provides for a digital certificate that can identify an individual or an organization and directory services that can store and, when necessary, revoke the certificates. Although the components of a PKI are generally understood, a number of different vendor approaches and services are emerging. Meanwhile, an Internet standard for PKI is being worked on.

The public key infrastructure assumes the use of public key cryptography, which is the most common method on the Internet for authenticating a message sender or encrypting a message.
Traditional cryptography has usually involved the creation and sharing of a secret key for the encryption and decryption of messages. This secret or private key system has the significant flaw that if the key is discovered or intercepted by someone else, messages can easily be decrypted. For this reason, public key cryptography and the public key infrastructure is the preferred approach on the Internet.

PrimeKey on Tuesday signed a memorandum of agreement appointing SecureMetric Technology Inc. based in Malaysia, as the distributor of the "PKI-in-box" technology in the Philippines.

"Our work is to have a complete PKI solution for ASTI," Edward Law, SecureMetric Technology chief executive officer told reporters in Makati Tuesday.

According to Rene Mendoza, ASTI Knowledge Management Division chief, said the DOST started procurement of a PKI system from PrimeKey and SecureMetric two years ago.

"They were awarded the contract in December 2012 and they started in January. They finished in April. Although they have been problems in spreading the adoption of PKI, we have been talking with the various government agencies like PhilHealth and the Social Security System (SSS) and asking them to be registration authorities as they have more resources and can do verification of people," said Mendoza.

Law said PKI platform is the most secured security technology in the world that could ensure that e-government services will be offered securely.

"ASTI is now actively promoting this to the related government agencies who want to adopt PKI into the e-government services," he said.

Meanwhile, Law added that SecureMetric will be conducting a series of seminars next month to inform more government agencies about the PKI platform and about the "PKI-in-a-box" platform.

"This is the official introduction of PKI-in-a box. This is a very innovative solution that would simplify the PKI implementation because usually, for us to implement a full PKI system, we need three to six months. Now, with everything in a box, we can complete a project in a month," he said.