Media statement - S.E.E. Key opens the door to secure

Media statement

S.E.E. Key opens the door to secure e-government

12 Dec 2001

The E-government Unit will be inviting local and international Certification Authorities to apply for accreditation to supply S.E.E. Keys as part of the Unit's ongoing Secure Electronic Environment (S.E.E.) Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) initiative.

"A S.E.E. Key is a digital certificate produced to our standards, and supplied with a smart token by an accredited Certification Authority," says Mike Pearson, S.E.E Project Manager for the E-government Unit of the State Services Commission. "S.E.E. Keys will be used to authenticate public servants to government web based applications. This will let us create systems to share SENSITIVE information across agency boundaries, and give users single sign-on among these systems."

"Several commercial Certification Authorities have already expressed interest in being accredited. In addition, we anticipate that some large government agencies may choose to run their own accredited Certification Authority facilities". Information for Certification Authorities on how to apply for S.E.E. PKI Accreditation is at: www.see.govt.nz/pki/guide.html.

"By accrediting Certification Authorities, we hope to create a contestable supply of digital certificates, to a known standard appropriate for the protection of SENSITIVE information. By limiting the scope to authentication of public servants, the accreditation framework is intended to be low cost for Certification Authorities compared with similar frameworks in other countries," says Pearson. "S.E.E. Key is currently not intended for use in systems requiring long-term digital signature, so we can get off the starting blocks sooner, and gain valuable experience with PKI." The S.E.E. PKI project will investigate the requirements for digital signature in 2002/03.

The S.E.E. PKI framework is an essential part of secure e-government. "The Treasury's CFISnet (Crown Financial Information System) will be the first S.E.E Key enabled application. S.E.E. Key is also seen as a crucial enabler for the proposed Shared Workspace, a secure, electronic shared workspace for project and policy development across government agencies," says Pearson. "The S.E.E. Key has been based upon agency business needs, and has three digital certificate types: "passport", "business card" and "associate", thus providing flexibility for agency applications."

Contact: Brendan Boyle, Director E-government Unit (04 495 6719)
Contact for technical content: Mike Pearson, Project Manager (04 495 6769)