VeriSign Unveils Platform For National Public Key Infrastructure

VeriSign, a provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, has announced a new platform specifically designed to meet the needs of governments looking to implement and manage their own Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

The new VeriSign PKI Platform is an in-premise solution modeled after the same PKI architecture that VeriSign has deployed as a managed service for customers. This deployment model allows governments throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East to adapt to specialised security requirements that may be placed on such critical national infrastructure.

The VeriSign PKI Platform gives governments a way to offer citizens fast and easy access to e-services such as health and welfare programmes, e-passports, and national ID programmes. PKI plays a critical role in e-governance by allowing countries to leverage authentication, encryption, and digital signature technologies when issuing identity certificates, business certificates, and device certificates. The trust enabled by these certificates helps governments streamline operations, minimise the risk of fraud and waste, and disseminate information more easily and securely.

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The VeriSign PKI Platform provides a comprehensive solution for national PKI deployments. Governments can manage their own certificates, with end-to-end control over end user digital certificates on a global scale. VeriSign also supports deployment of PKI applications and strong authentication using smartcards across major Web browsers and platforms – an advantage for governments aiming to simplify high-volume delivery of PKI digital certificates and applications via the latest generation of smartcards.

The solution also is designed to make it easy for governments to deploy today and to expand their use of PKI, adding new devices and services without having to redesign their PKI architecture.

“By implementing strong authentication, encryption, and digital signature technologies, governments can significantly reduce the risk of forgery, theft, or abuse of identification credentials,” said Phil D’Angio, director of business development at VeriSign. “Governments around the world can rely on this new platform to help improve availability and security of government transactions, but we think it is equally important that users can leverage their credentials with non-government service providers like banks, social networks, and in e-commerce. We help drive that cross-over use case and value proposition through our partnerships.”