Bandar Seri Begawan - The provision for sound Internet security and legal framework was not fully established during the Eighth National Development Plan (NDP) period. As a result current laws and their implementation do not fulfil the purposes of national ICT security, said an expert working with the government in its e-Government initiative.

Introduced for the first time in the Eighth NDP, the ICT sector was identified as one of the key catalysts for sustainable socio-economic development and had since been promoted and given priority in the 2008-2012 National Development Plan.

However, in an email sent to The Brunei Times, an expert has warned that the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI, see panel) Has not been fully elaborated in the Electronic Transactions Act 2000, and may "cause some problems and difficulties in the provision of e-government services as well as e-business".

"Public Key Infrastructure is recognised as an effective tool for ensuring: authentication, confidentiality, integrity of data," the expert said, adding that these enabled applications, which include electronic payments, allow users to conduct such exchanges of important information in a secure way.

Most countries employed Public Key Infrastructure for citizens and businesses to achieve electronic transactions for e-business and e-government in a secure, safe and reliable way.

"Brunei has not fully implemented nationwide Public Key Infrastructure. The government's Public Key Infrastructure has been developed, but the Public Key Infrastructure for citizens and businesses has not been put in place," said the expert.

"Without nationwide Public Key Infrastructure, Brunei Darussalam would have difficulty in taking a step forward to the advanced e-government stage such as transaction and integration in the perspective of e-government readiness," the expert added.

Countries experiencing Internet disturbances have recognised that national security can only be realised by close cooperation with other countries. "Governments make efforts to predict and prevent cyber attacks from both inside and outside the country," the expert said, "with full consideration of their critical infrastructure being connected to international networks and looking at possible ways (loopholes) for crimes to be committed."

ICT security poses Challenges in cyber transactions as the Internet develops at breakneck pace, and is widely exploited not just for e-commerce but also e-government. Likewise, ICT security threats are expected to become more widespread, and increasingly more sophisticated, the expert explained.

"Citizens are unlikely to use e-government services without a guarantee of privacy and security. Governments also have a strong interest in maintaining citizens' trust (that information provided will not be misused)," said the expert.

The difficulty in protecting individual privacy can be a critical barrier to e-government implementation, the expert added, with particular emphasis on the need for links between electronic files.

"Consolidation (of electronic files) has been recognised as the cost-effective way, at the same time, privacy concerns have been caused by threat posed by sharing of electronic files and databases and the potential uses of new information of electronic files. This contradictory issue between common service of e-government and privacy needs to be explored and solved in further study," the expert added.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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