The Vietnam Information Security Association (VNISA) decided on Tuesday to set up the Viet Nam Certificate Authority and Digital Transaction Club (VCDC).

VCDC consists of seven founding members -- Bkav-CA, Viettel-CA, VNPT-CA, FPT-CA, Nacencomm (CA2), Vina Signature (Smart-Sight) and NewCA.

In cryptography, CA (a certificate authority or certification authority) is an entity that issues digital certificates. A digital certificate certifies the ownership of a public key by the named subject of the certificate. This allows others (relying parties) to rely upon signiatures or on assertions made about the private key that corresponds to the certified public key.

According to a VCDC representative, the club’s aim is to improve the efficiency of business activities, protect the legitimate rights and interests of participating members as well as boost research activities on technology, economic information, market, trade promotion and cooperation between the domestic and international business community.

VCDC will act as the link among enterprises as well as with local authorities. It will provide a platform to know about members’ aspirations with management bodies to find solutions to difficulties in business activities. It will also make digital signature certification an important service in the national information infrastructure and develop effective tools for electronic transactions and e-government.

Vu Quoc Thanh, deputy president and general secretary of VNISA, said public CA services were initially established in many countries, but they were later merged and dissolved. Each country now had only one or two CAs, he said.

However, in Viet Nam, public CAs still operated effectively despite many difficulties. The gathering of digital signatures and e-transaction businesses, which would create an alliance, should be encouraging. VCDC would not only help customers and businesses solve their problems if needed but also develop the market, Thanh said.

La Hoang Trung, director of the National Electronic Authentication Centre, said public CA service had actively operated in the past years. They competed with others by service price, which had placed many difficulties and challenges for State agencies in policymaking.

Trung said he hoped the club would help businesses exchange and share experience to safeguard their interests as well as those of their customers, besides accelerating the quality of services. In addition to this, VCDC will become a point of criticism, contributing ideas to the authorities to fulfill policies in this area. — VNS