H.E. the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Eng. Mohamed Jamil Mulla, has said that a public key infrastructure was established in the Kingdom, adding that this PKI identifies the identity of users and ensures confidentiality of data, allows privacy and digital signature for users.
The minister’s remarks were made while opening on Tuesday December 15, 2009 (28 Dhul Hija 1430H.), a seminar on ‘Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges in PKI’, being organized by MCIT National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC).
Eng. Mulla explained that NCDC was established so as to be responsible of the management and operation of PKI and reciprocal authentication with similar centers in other countries.
It is worth mentioning that this two-day seminar is being organized at the Riyadh Intercontinental Hotel from December 15-16, 2009 (28-29 Dhul Hija 1430H.). The seminar endeavors to crystallize ideas, visions, priorities and mechanisms on deployment of public key certificates which underline all electronic transactions. This infrastructure enables all users of Internet services to conduct safe, reliable, and secure transactions.
Beside speakers and professionals from the Kingdom, experts from several countries including: South Korea, Malaysia, Tunisia, Egypt as well as some European countries and the United States are taking part in this seminar.
The minister noted that the organization of this seminar is for shedding light on the efforts been exerted in regard to measures and steps been taken within PKI and to benefit from the ideas of experts and professionals in going forward in establishing an integrated, secured PKI which contributes in the support and penetration of electronic services.
Full text of the minister’s speech:
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful and may peace and blessings be on our prophet Muhammad and upon his family and upon his noble companions
Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests,
I have the pleasure to welcome you to this seminar on ‘Experiences, Opportunities and Challenges in PKI’ and allow me to welcome in particular the participants who arrived from outside the Kingdom to present their experiences in regard to the challenges and opportunities in PKI. I would also like to welcome speakers from different relevant sectors in the Kingdom and companies that would contribute, through its solutions and experiments, in the operation and developing of the services related to PKI.
Dear Attendees,
It is known that electronic dealing has a number of bases that should exist in order to accept, use and have confidence in this dealing. One of these bases is the existence of communications network to connect users and enable this dealing. This, praise be to God, what has been achieved in the Kingdom following the privatization of the communication sector and opening it to competition. The second base is the legislative environment represented by the Communications Act, the e-Transactions Act, the e-Crime Act and others. These Acts have embodied the legal frame of e-transactions, a matter which preserves the rights of all involved parties, penalize mal-use, identify penalties, litigation bodies, settlement of violations and other matters arise due to the operation process.
The e-transactions system requires the establishment and operation of what is known as PKI, which is an integrated system that identifies users and ensures confidentiality of data and allows privacy and digital signature for users. Praise be to God, this key infrastructure was created by the establishment of the National Center for Digital Certification (NCDC), to be responsible of the management and operation of PKI and reciprocal authentication with similar centers in other countries as well as supervision and authentication of existing public and private sector digital certification centers and others that may be established in future. NCDC is also concerned with the issuance of necessary regulations and policies in this context and to verify the safety and security of measures followed in the issuance and management of digital certificates.
Dear Attendees,
NCDC has completed a number of tasks necessary for launching the service, among them is the launch of Root Certification Center and the Government Certification Center. A number of security documents and policies and necessary agreements were developed as well as the development of operation and technical support procedures. Earlier, technical specifications were set for the management of coding keys, measures for issuing and storing certificates and developing the specifications for the Center’s environment, equipment and necessary programs for issuing certificates as well as the mechanism for storing keys.
The organization of this seminar aims at shedding light on these efforts, and to benefit from the ideas of experts and professionals in going forward in establishing an integrated, secured PKI which contributes in the support and penetration of electronic services.
Brothers and sisters,
Finally, I would like to repeat my thanks to lecturers, organizers and sponsors who contributed for the success of this event. My thanks also go to all those who attend this gathering.
I wish you successful deliberations and thank you for your attention.