Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 13 November 2001

Comtrust, the e-business infrastructure unit of Etisalat, recently organised a special e-security workshop focusing on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) based security services for existing and potential customers in the UAE.

PKI is a system of digital certificates, certification authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an Internet transaction.

More than 60 people from government departments, the banking community, as well as small medium and large organizations across the UAE, attended the half-day workshop in Dubai. The agenda covered among others, the challenges to information security, addressing e-security concerns, a history of PKI and how to deploy PKI to ensure a secure and robust e-solution.

“The security challenges facing businesses on the net include confidentiality, where due to the nature of the net or any other electronic media, one can never be sure that the sent information will only be viewed by the intended person,” explains Amir Rashid, Comtrust’s Product Manager for PKI Services and on-line payments. “Furthermore, integrity is called into question, as without certain security and precaution measures, one will not know whether the data has been tampered with”.

“Other challenges include authentication, where the lack of physical contact creates doubt about the identity of the other party and finally there is non–repudiation whereby the threat is that the requestor of a certain transaction, such as a stock exchange transaction, will deny issuing the request.”

Comtrust works hard to educate businesses, educational establishments and individuals as to the importance of security on the Internet, and regularly participates in forums and seminars in order to reinforce the message.

“This was the first dedicated workshop we have organised on the subject and we were delighted at the response. Interest shown by the attendees reaffirms our stand that the market for security services for web based applications is set to expand exponentially in the region,” explains Farooq Hasan, Manager Marketing Comtrust.

Comtrust is the region’s leading provider of Public-Key Infrastructure based Certification & Security Services, and recently announced the introduction of digital certificates to UAE businesses and individuals as part of Comtrust Certification Services.