Hong Kong's corporations are about six to nine months behind their United States counterparts when it comes to understanding the security importance of public key infrastructure (PKI), an expert from the US says.
Dominic Storey, worldwide director of technology at RSA Security, said that globalisation meant information was more widely disseminated and helped make people aware of new technology more quickly.
PKI, which is slowly being adopted by companies with online operations, is a way of providing secure transactions by giving two people private codes and a safe line for doing deals or transferring documents.
'In the States, they have moved forward quite a long way,' Mr Storey said.
Nasdaq-listed RSA creates the cryptography software used in most online transactions, with the help of PKI and encryption.
According to Mr Storey, there are four steps to the adoption of PKI. The first two are education and legislation. The third is justification - when companies are ready to buy security products - and the last is implementation.
