National Root Certificate Authority: Messages From Amin-ul-Haq Federal Minister, IT

TEXT: I am delighted to felicitate Electronic Certification Accreditation Council (ECAC) management and employees on Establishment of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for National Root Certification Authority. ECAC, being the regulator of security in the cyber space is to provide state of the art certification & cryptography services. With the development of PKI Infrastructure, ECAC being the Root Certification Authority is now capable of providing the Certification Services which result in creation of trust and authentication of the end users.

Under Digital Pakistan Programme, Ministry of IT & Telecom is taking concrete steps to promote the e-education, e-health, e-agriculture, e-commerce, innovation, entrepreneurship, incubators and Startups. For all these, availability of secure and reliable hosting platform is the pre-requisite, ECAC is providing reliability of these platforms in shape of National Root Certification Authority (PKI) of Pakistan with state of the art latest technology.

Today, in the developed world, PKI governs the issuance of digital certificates to protect sensitive data, provide unique digital identities for users, devices, applications and secure end-to-end communications. PKI is based on electronic ecosystem and in Pakistan, Electronic Transaction Ordinance (ETO) provides for legal recognition of the digital signature based on cryptographic systems. Digital Signatures are now being accepted at par with the handwritten signatures and electronic document which are digitally signed have become at par with the paper documents so now the time has come for leveraging more and more from this and develop and deliver more secure and reliable systems using PKI to address the major trust and security challenges to Pakistan.

It is very encouraging to see that ECAC has adopted the latest technology available in global market and ensuring the provisioning of best solutions for digital signatures. I have confidence that ECAC will keep on building its capacity in same way to cope with emerging challenges during the journey to “Digital Pakistan”. I appreciate ECAC performance and congratulate ECAC Management for the phenomenal development of National Root PKI infrastructure for the Public and Private Sector and wish them all support and success.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022