The development of PKI interoperability in Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan established its first Certification Authority, namely, Government Certification Authority (GCA), in 1998 which launched the electronic certification services in Taiwan. From year 2001 to 2004, Government Public Key Infrastructure (GPKI) is being established according to the planning set forth in E-Government Program with the aim of strengthening electronic government infrastructure and establishing electronic certification and security applications for executive administration. Some commercial PKIs such as eCA, TaiCA and Hitrust have established in Taiwan in recent years. PKI interoperability becomes a major issue. Several Interoperability methods, such as strict hierarchy and bridge certificate authority (BCA), have been deployed in different PKI domains. Global PKI interoperability in Taiwan is adopting BCA as a major CA-CA interoperability engine, which will bridge trust relationship between different PKI domains.