Skip to content.
|Networking government in New Zealand.
You are here: Home » Services » Authentication » progress-report-2005 » Overview

Overview

Developing convenient, secure access to government services

This document provides a brief overview, history, and review of the ongoing progress of the New Zealand All-of-Government Authentication Programme.

Authentication: verifying the identity of individuals and services

"Authentication" is the process of establishing, to the required level of confidence, the identity of one (or more) of the parties in a transaction. It is a core component of e-government, allowing people and government agencies to transact more securely online. An all-of-government approach to authentication makes government online services more convenient, accessible, private, and secure.

All-of-government authentication: standardising for New Zealand

The Programme began in 2000 with the aim of determining what Government could do to help people more conveniently and securely authenticate themselves when transacting with government agencies using the Internet.

The Programme has moved from policy development, high-level design work and public consultation through to the implementation and building of an operational logon service. Work on developing further authentication services is underway.

Stages in the Programme's development

Significant stages in developing the Programme have included:

  • April 2002: The Government agreed the policy and implementation principles that would guide development.
  • June 2003: The Programme completed public consultation on conceptual models and decided to begin a design-and-scoping phase.
  • January 2004: The Government agreed an implementation option.
  • June 2004: The Programme published the "Best Practice Framework for Authentication".
  • July 2004: The current phase, "Initial Implementation" began, consisting of:
    • initial implementation of the Shared Logon Service
    • development of standards for the overall authentication process
    • policy work on privacy and future legal implications
    • research and development on how to manage electronic identity
    • development of review bodies and Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs)
    • further work to confirm the estimated costs and benefits of rolling out.

The Programme, lead by the State Services Commission (SSC), has broken down the current Initial Implementation phase into three main projects.

For more information on the respective projects, please visit the project pages:

The Programme is also developing a business case that will chart out further phases of the Programme. Further details of the agencies the Programme is engaging with and details of privacy impact assessments may be found here.


[ Previous | Next ]