Prospects for creating digital certificates body

[img_assist|nid=8551|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=67]South Korea granted $2.3-million to the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) of Philippines to assist in establishing a national public key infrastructure (PKI) standards body in the Philippines.

The PKI institution is to issue digital signatures (or digital certificates) for individual and business users transacting with government-run websites.

The project is granted by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) and governed by the conjoint forces of the CICT and Department of Trade and Industry.

Today e-commerce websites are already being provided PKI services by local service providers but the technology's use is not widespread.

"The goal is to encourage e-commerce further and enable users to feel more secure about transacting online," said Tess Roberto, CICT-NCC (National Computer Center) director for consulting and services.

In the role of the pilot agency to adopt digital signatures to help reduce redundant applications for tax identification numbers voluntarily became Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

According to Roberto neighboring countries like Thailand are already taking measures to implement PKI system.

"This enables more security for country-to-country trade. If we do not start adopting now, other countries won't be so trusting with the Philippines when it comes to e-commerce," she said.