ure cross-country e-commerce transactions in the region a reality. Strategic partners in this initiative include Digicert SDN BHD (Digicert) of Malaysia, ID.Safe Pte Ltd (ID.Safe) of Singapore, Joint Electronic Teller Services Ltd. (JETCO) of Hong Kong, KSIGN Co., Ltd (KSIGN) of Korea, Netrust Pte Limited (Netrust) of Singapore, and Taiwan-CA.COM Inc. (TaiCA) of Taiwan.
This initiative represents the industry’s first regional effort to address the practical constraints of PKI and to promote the use of PKI for securing e-commerce transactions. Widely believed to be the most secure means for protecting online transactions, PKI has been labelled as a technology that is expensive to deploy and difficult to use. Through this technology partnership, PrivyLink will work closely with the respective CAs to study deployment strategies of PKI technology, as well as to identify killer-applications that promote widespread adoption of PKI in the
respective markets.
Besides, this effort also aims to promote secure cross-country transactions - a demand that is reflected by traditional business practices. This is made possible through the synergy of this partnership initiated by PrivyLink. To address
interoperability issues essential to cross-country transactions, a generic application security platform will be promoted to concurrently handle digital certificates issued by all of the regional CAs. This platform will be developed by PrivyLink in collaboration with all the regional CAs.
Awareness and marketing events will also be organized in the respective markets to promote PKI adoption and applications, enabling e-Business in the region.
“PrivyLink has been playing an active role in promoting PKI initiatives in Asia. Digicert, ID.Safe, JETCO, Netrust and TaiCA are leading certificate-based security service providers in Asia while KSIGN is an eminent PKI solution provider in Korea. Combining PrivyLink’s e-Security expertise and experiences in e-business
applications in major Asian financial hubs with market knowledge of the respective CAs, this initiative is bound to create tremendous synergy and helps enhance cross-country e-commerce activities in Asia. We see our partnership a
critical move to stimulate adoption of PKI in this region,” said Dr. Lam, CEO of PrivyLink.
Mr John Tsang, Deputy General Manager of JETCO shared this view. “As a premium payment network provider, JETCO always look for opportunities to
create values for our member banks through adoption of state-of-the-art technology. This partnership with PrivyLink reaffirms our commitment to delivering cutting-edge technologies and applications to member banks for enhancing their e-Business operations. The synergy of this partnership helps further establish the trust relationships between organizations and customers. We will work
together closely to promote PKI technology and digital certificates in daily e-Business
operations.”
“We aim to accelerate the adoption of PKI and to promote cost-effective e-Security solutions for banks and financial institutions in Taiwan.” said Mr Chang-Ching Lin, President of TaiCA. “With proven technological competence and in-depth understanding of e-Security trends in the region, PrivyLink can help open up opportunities in our PKI market,” continued Mr Lin. “Through this partnership, we shall benefit from PrivyLink’s expertise and experiences in applying PKI technology in e-business. Both parties will work together to identify and deploy
killer-applications for PKI in Taiwan.” according to Mr Lin.
“With the increasing deployment of PKI in the region to secure high-value business transactions, the opportunities for PKI services and PKI-based applications are growing in an unprecedented pace. Our strong experience in
PKI deployment amongst the government bodies and the banking industry, coupled with the positive track record of PrivyLink’s e-Security solutions in the region, have enabled us to capitalize on this partnership to effectively explore
new sales and marketing opportunities.” said Foo Jong Ai, CEO of Netrust.
“Cross-country e-commerce transaction is a difficult and yet important area to
address. It involves both technological and legal issues. The partnership with PrivyLink will help set a platform for resolving the technological differences between the various regional CAs, thus serving as a major push in making cross-country transactions a reality. By combining the expertise and knowledge of both parties, I am confident that this partnership will stimulate the e-Security market both domestically and regionally.” said Dr. Hong, CEO of KSIGN.
Agreed Mr Noor Azli Othman, CEO of Digicert. “While our domestic e-commerce
market is still growing and has yet to be fully exploited, we cannot overlook the importance of cross-country e-business activities. The catalytic effect of secure cross-country transactions in intra-regional trade is significant,” said Mr Othman. “The alliance with PrivyLink helps us simplify and accelerate open PKI applications development. We can get to the market faster with products that offer high level of security, scalability and interoperability. Our combined resources will be optimized to bring a trustful and reliable environment for the
prospering Internet.” said Mr Othman.
In summarizing the significance of this partnership, Mr Lim Yong Gan, General
Manager of ID.Safe, said “As the only licensed CA in Singapore, we are constantly looking for cost-effective applications to drive the adoption of PKI as well as to help our e-ID users transact with business partners beyond the Singapore border. The partnership with PrivyLink is a natural step towards this direction”.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Fanny Tse at PrivyLink Tel: (852) 2523 3908 Fax: (852) 2501 5503 or fannytse@privylink.com.hk.
About PrivyLink
PrivyLink International Ltd is a leading provider of e-Security technology and
security-sensitive infrastructure solutions and services in the Asia-Pacific region, with offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. With its in-house R&D capability, the firm provides secure wireless and e-commerce security solutions covering various areas such as Internet banking, mobile banking, electronic payments, and electronic government.
PrivyLink has gained recognition for its R&D capabilities. It attained the “Best Smart Card Application Award” from Gemplus International in 1999. It is the fifth technology provider worldwide that has received the SET Secure Electronic Transaction accreditation, an industry standard developed by VISA and MasterCard. PrivyLink has also obtained
US NIST certifications of FIPS-46-3 and FIPS-180-1 for cryptographic algorithms implementation. Its TrustField Cryptographic Key Server is compliant
with FIPS 140-1 Level 3. For more information, visit www.privylink.com.
SET is the trademark of SET Secure Electronic Transaction LLC.
About Digicert
Digicert offers trusted certifications services for the Internet to enable trusted
commerce and communication. The company is the first certification authority in Malaysia offering digital certificate for secure web server, browser and e-mail packages with a range of assurance level.
Digicert uses a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) solution that meets the requirements
of the Malaysian Digital Signature Act 1997. The PKI solution will use public key digital technology to ensure authenticity and integrity of information in electronic transaction, and to enforce non-repudiation in personal and private
sectors. For more information see www.digicert.com.my.
About ID.Safe
ID.Safe, incorporated in June 1999, is Singapore's first and only licensed Certification Authority. A joint venture between CISCO Computer Security and Singapore Post, it acts as a trusted third party to provide security in e-commerce transactions. ID.Safe issues digital certificates known as e-ID to organisations and individuals and these serve to authenticate users' identities in cyberspace. Functioning much like an identification card with an attached digital signature, transacting parties using e-ID cannot claim to have been misrepresented and hence repudiate their actions. Adopting open international standards, ID.Safe's e-ID can also be seamlessly integrated into e-commerce applications developed using the same open standards.
About JETCO CA
As the largest banking consortium in the region, JETCO understands that the issues of security would have to be addressed first if banks were to fully explore the potential of e-commerce. In view of this, JETCO began to invest in public key infrastructure (PKI) in 1998. JETCO appointed the world recognized PKI expert to set up the Certification Authority (CA) specially designed for the banking industry. It marks the launch of Hong Kong’s first privately operated CA.
JETCO CA has been in operation since March 2000. It issues digital certificates for member banks’ customers free-of-charge. Furthermore, to promote the utilization of PKI in the banking industry, JETCO has developed a number of PKI-enabled applications to be used amongst member banks. JETCO’s initiatives will save member banks considerable costs and resources they would otherwise have to spend on developing their own PKI infrastructure. For more information
see www.jetco.com.hk.
About KSIGN
KSIGN, established in 1999, has provided PKI solution to Licensed CAs such as Korea Information Certificate Authority (KICA), Korea Securities Computer Corp. (KOSCOM), Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC), and National Computerization Agency (NCA). Recently, KSIGN was selected as
a wireless PKI solution provider for Korea Root CA (KISA, Korea Information Security Agency), Korea Telecom (KT), LG Telecom (LGTel). KSIGN is enhancing its power in the area of the PKI solution markets. Ministry of Government
Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA) has chosen KSignTSS (Time Stamp System) to provide validation service in digital documents. KSIGN will also participate in GPKI (Government PKI) projects and take initiative to facilitate e-Commerce and m-Commerce with PKI solution. For more information see
www.ksign.com .
About Netrust
Netrust was established in May 1997 as the first Certification Authority (CA) in
Southeast Asia. A joint venture between Keppel Telecommunications & Transportation (Keppel T&T) and Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte Ltd (NETS), Netrust provides individuals, businesses and government organizations with a complete online identification and security infrastructure to enable secure electronic transactions via the Internet and other wireless media.
In its capacity as a Certification Authority (CA), Netrust acts as a trusted third
party (TTP) that issues and manages digital certificates. Netrust maintains a Public
Key Infrastructure (PKI) certification service and in its CA role creates and signs
X.509 digital certificates which bind individuals, organizations and application
servers with the particular public key of each subscriber. For more information
see www.netrust.net.
About TaiCA
Taiwan-CA.COM Inc., established in 1999 under the agreement of Ministry of Finance, has facilitated the certificates authentication for the e-service in securities, finance, insurance and commerce industries. There are four major
shareholders including Taiwan Stock Exchange Company, The Financial Information Service Co., The Tradevan Information Service Co., and The Taiwan Securities Central Depository Co. The objectives of TaiCA are to enhance the
security of e-Commerce, to provide a total and comprehensive certificate-based solutions in Internet transactions, and to integrate strong authentication of e-service. For more information please see
www.taica.com.tw.