Government attaches great importance to information security
12 - 05 - 2000

A secure and trustworthy environment is vital for the conduct of electronic transactions in Hong Kong.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Internet Security and PKI Application Centre of the City University of Hong Kong today (May 12), the Director of Information Technology Services, Mr Lau Kam-hung, said, "The advancement of the public key cryptography enables us to safeguard information and to build a secure infrastructure for conducting electronic transactions."

As part of the Government, Hongkong Post had established a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and started to provide its public Certification Authority (CA) service in January this year.

"By following the open standard of PKI, Hongkong Post offers flexible certification services to the community and provides a secure environment to address the security concern when conducting business transactions in cyberspace," said Mr Lau.

Apart from Hongkong Post, the private sector is free to set up more CAs to meet different needs in the community.

"These CAs are free to apply for recognition from the Government under a voluntary recognition scheme," said Mr Lau, "My department has established a Certification Authority Recognition Office to process such applications."

To protect consumers' interest and enhance users' confidence, government recognition will only be granted to those CAs which have achieved an acceptable trust standard and have adopted a common and open interface in their operations.

The Electronic Transactions Ordinance enacted in January this year provides a clear legal framework that creates certainty and builds confidence for the public to conduct electronic transactions in Hong Kong.

Under the Ordinance, electronic records and digital signatures are given the same legal status as that of their paper-based counterparts.

The Government is also committed to promoting the awareness on information security to the general public, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises.

"Since November 1999, the Information Technology Services Department (ITSD) has organised three seminars to provide opportunities for the participants to share their experience on information security," said Mr Lau.

"To enhance the public's knowledge on computer virus, ITSD has also uploaded onto its web site ( http://www.itsd.gov.hk/itsd/eng/virus ) the latest information on computer virus and anti-virus utility for public reference and free downloading," he said.

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