Hongkong Post (HKPost) plans to issue a tender for upgrading its electronic certificate (e-cert) system in anticipation of a heavy increase in use once identity cards go digital early next year.
Y.C. Lam, senior manager at HKPost's Certificate Authority, the unit in charge of issuing e-certs, which can be used for authentication and encryption when conducting business over the Internet, said about 50,000 certificates had been issued and the system's capacity was about 10 times that number.
HKPost wanted to be prepared for an expected 'critical mass of e-certs issued' when Hong Kong's 6.8 million residents were offered the option of having digital certificates stored on their ID cards. The certificates would be offered free for the first year, while each year of renewal would cost HK$50.
'I think this will be a request for proposals for a technical upgrade of the system,' Mr Lam said. He did not say when the tender would be posted, but that probably it would be open for the standard government policy of six weeks.
The present certificate system, built at a cost of HK$55 million by Hewlett-Packard and GTE Cybertrust, and unveiled in 2000, did not have many users in its first year because of a lack of applications, Mr Lam said. In the past year, HKPost introduced specialised certificates issued through banks and mobile certificates to be used with mobile phones and personal digital assistants.
To promote the use of digital certificates and digital signatures, the Government requires them for the submission of documents to Government departments online and for functions such as the filing of tax returns. A separate 'digital government' system, with kiosks to allow access in public places such as libraries and Mass Transit Railway stations, was built by Compaq Computer and makes heavy use of e-certs.
Sin Chung-kai, the legislator representing the information technology functional constituency, said e-cert adoption rate was too slow, though their addition to digital ID cards should stimulate use.
