The South African Post Office (SAPO) has officially become a player in the information security game after launching its Trust Centre last night.
The centre, which has been in development since 2000, houses a fully-fledged SA-developed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), aimed at delivering authentication products and services to government, the private sector and internationally.
"I hear people say that SAPO is struggling because mail volumes are dwindling, but now you can see that SAPO has taken up technology and continues to adapt," said communications minister Dina Pule at the launch.
Pule says the need for advanced information security becomes more and more important as business is increasingly conducted electronically. "The centre means citizens can appreciate that they have a government who cares about their business."
According to Charles Dick, SAPO senior manager of e-business, the Trust Centre is a local initiative, based in Cape Town, and uses software that is locally developed, which poses a number of benefits.
Dick explains that having the centre based in SA means the needs and wants of its clients are understood. In addition, locally-developed software comes at a fraction of the price of its international counterpart and local skills are being harnessed.
Certificate security
The SAPO Trust Centre provides a range of PKI products and services, as well as the PKI technology itself. Trust Centre digital certificates provide the legal authentication needed to open the doors for safe electronic communicating and transacting.
A digital certificate is an electronic file securely linking an individual to encryption keys and identification data. This certificate belongs to a server or person, and resides on a mobile token or within the certificate store of an application like an Internet browser.
Three types of security certificates are offered by the Trust Centre to meet specific information security needs, and all comply with international standards. These certificates provide authentication to Web sites and servers, ensures messages have not been tampered with, can be used to encrypt electronic messages or data, and be used to sign electronic documents.
The Trust Centre is fully accredited by the South African Accreditation Authority in terms of the Electronic Communications and Transaction Act.
While the Trust Centre only provides trust certification at the moment, rumour is that it will continue to launch new products over the next year.
National importance
Microsoft SA chief security advisor Khomotso Kganyago says the Trust Centre comes at a time when information security is more important than ever.
Kganyago says cyber breaches can no longer only be attributed to cyber crime, but also to economic espionage, military espionage and cyber warfare. "Criminals have followed the technological trend and are getting smarter all the time."
Kganyago notes the key trends affecting security are consumerisation of IT, targeted attacks, an identity-centric environment, cloud computing and regulatory issues.
"Numerous Web sites have been defaced recently and we can see this problem continue to grow," he says. "When Web sites get defaced it breaks down the services of the country and it becomes a national problem."
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