An Australian company is introducing its public key infrastructure
(PKI) services to New Zealand - in spite of a ban preventing local
firms from exporting in the opposite direction.
The Australian federal government has mandated that PKI services
for government agencies should only be acceptable from companies
which have an Australian base for significant parts of their
operations, including storage and maintenance of the digital
signatures of local users.
Sydney-based eSign Australia, which is seeking representation in
New Zealand through two local partners, has a particular eye on
government and large corporations in New Zealand. The company is a
partner of the US PKI market leader Verisign, which owns just under
20% of the Australian company.
ESign helped to implement the Australian government's Gatekeeper
PKI system.
Interim guidelines on the New Zealand e-government unit's secure
electronic environment (See) project for e-mail and file-sharing
among government agencies indicate that Australian PKI solutions
will be acceptable for its purposes.
Gregg Rowley, the managing director of eSign, said the New Zealand
government "seemed comfortable with an Australian contribution to
their PKI effort".
"With the e-government project and See, the goalposts have been put
in place in terms of the criteria for establishing a registration
service in New Zealand," Rowley added. "Detailed accreditation
criteria for registering and certifying authorities are still to be
fleshed out for See, but we're close to what we need."