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Lydia Zajc

Hongkong Post and Ireland's Baltimore Technologies have unveiled a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to help the post office introduce secure authentication for companies and individuals who want to use mobile phones for transactions.

In three months, wireless digital certificates will be available to SAR companies and individuals, allowing them to conduct mobile transactions such as banking, stock trades, online betting and ordering flowers, officials from both organisations said yesterday.

Baltimore provides Internet and mobile security products.

Like signatures or passports, digital certificates allow people to prove their identity when using wired and wireless devices.

'This is a very important step to promote e-commerce,' said Postmaster-General Luk Ping-chuen. 'The Hong Kong community can have a wider choice of technology.'

The MOU paved the way for the first mobile certification authority service in the world to rely on a standard called wireless transport layer security, Baltimore chief executive Fran Rooney said.

Baltimore's vice-president of North Asia, Greg Leniston, added: 'We believe that it will be the first to market in the world.'

Company officials said they did not know how many people would sign up for the embryonic service, since mobile commerce was still in its infancy in Asia despite widespread use of mobile phones.

'It's almost impossible to predict take-up,' Mr Leniston said.

Gartner CMO Asia-Pacific research director Lane Leskela said security technology was a basic building block to increase consumer trust in a wireless world. 'It's a minimal requirement to provide technical security.'

International Data Corp Asia-Pacific analyst Dane Anderson said Asia lagged the world in e-commerce deals, partly because consumers were worried about online security and fewer people used credit cards.

Mobile systems also were forecast to become more popular in the region, increasing the possibility of wireless transactions, Mr Anderson said.

Hongkong Post has already agreed to use some security solutions from Entrust Technologies of Plano, Texas.

Mr Luk said the post office planned to work with many technology providers to give users more choice.

In December, Hongkong Post said it was building on its public key infrastructure system, which enabled parties to verify identities in electronic deals, and its electronic certificate, or e-Cert, programme.

The Government has been introducing online services and promoting e-Certs to allow people to pay bills, submit tax returns, renew driving licences and more, over computers and standalone kiosks.

Baltimore has competitors in the electronic security field, including Entrust Technologies.

Mr Rooney said Baltimore could handle more clients than Entrust. He did not see Entrust as a key rival in the wireless sector.



Post office makes world first in wireless security system