CIO Key Ceremony Completed

The Gulf News (www.gulf-daily-news.com) Newspaper for the entire Arabian Gulf annouced that "THE Central Informatics Organisation has officially issued and approved the main electronic keys authenticating e-signatures. CIO president Mohammed Ahmed Al Amer patronised the ceremony under tight security in line with international standards. The event is part of preparations to develop and launch the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).

The PKI is an advanced arrangement aimed at binding public keys with user identities by means of Certificate Authority (CA). The CA will also be launched soon for individuals and companies as part of the second phase of the Smart card. CA holders will be able to finalise legal contracts and conduct commercial transactions online safely. The unforgeable e-signature will authenticate identities, ensuring signature validity and maximum confidentiality.

Individuals holders of identity cards will be issued with CA certificates worth BD3. A second category of CA certificates costing BD4 each will also be issued for individuals. As for companies, enterprises and other departments they will be issued with BD100 CA certificates."