Keynote speakers answer questions on public key infrastructure (PKI) at the ASEAN Financial Institution Conference on June 18 in Ha Noi. — VNS Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Viet Nam has been using public key infrastructure (PKI) for a few years, and the country should develop more applications to take advantage of it.

Lim Chin Wan, chief business development officer of Malaysia's SecureMetric Technology Group, said this at the ASEAN Financial Institution Conference (ASEANFIC) on June 18 in Ha Noi.

He added that the development of apps will help in the acceptance and use of PKI by customers. The application of PKI in the banking sector will boost electronic services, he remarked.

PKI is a collection of technological components needed to create, manage, distribute and use digital certificates. It also helps store and revoke them. The infrastructure has business applications, such as e-banking, e-identity cards and e-receipts. PKI provides customers an overview of all servers in their data centres, better security via server-to-server authentication, control and help in managing server access.

Lim said the main challenge for banks was to develop electronic services and security systems. "If the security system is implemented well, it will take a lot of money for banks to resolve issues. They need to ensure security when launching any e-services. More importantly, it can affect the reputation of the banks," he noted.

In April, local and international technology websites warned of a threat of a bug called OpenSSL Heartbleed. Attending the conference, Tomas Gustavsson, CEO of Sweden's Primekey Solution AB, said nobody can assess the impact of the bug. Because of OpenSSL Heartbleed, many banks had to extend the usage time of certification authority (CA) for customers, or issue new CA.

ASEANFIC was founded by SecureMetric Technology Group and a group of volunteers from ICT and financial institutions in ASEAN. This is the second time the conference was held in Ha Noi. It aims to feature the content of the PKI technology in the context of increasing demand for PKI security, the best, most secure and trusted security implementation. — VNS