Client Details

Egyptian Ministry of Defense


The Egyptian Ministry of Defence and Military Production is the ministry responsible for the Egyptian Armed Forces organization and manages its affairs and maintains its facilities. It also handles the affairs of colleges and military recruitment, mobilization and management of veterans and military factories in Egypt through the Armed Forces Management and Administration Agency.



Softlock has successfully provided the Egyptian Armed Forces - IT department with PKI solution to protect it's sensitive information.

 

Introduction to the PKI (Public key Infrastructure)

 
  1. PKI is security architecture provides a high level of confidence in exchanging information through intensive encryption protocols and the use of public and private cryptographic key pairs
  1. The aim of the PKI is to enable secure digital interactions as the transfer of information through the Internet, networks or VPNs.
  1. A (PKI) is a combination of roles, policies, hardware, software and procedures required to create, manage, distribute, use, store and revoke digital certificates and manage the encryption of public keys.
  1.  Data encrypted with private key can only decrypted with public key on the other hand data encrypted with public key can only decrypted with private key. That is how the PKI system does identification and encrypts data.
 
 

What is PKI?

PKI is designed to ensure the security and trustworthiness of transactions and identities in three ways: through authentication, encryption, and digital signatures.

Authentication

Authentication is achieved by binding public and private keys to user identities through a certificate authority (CA). Each user identity issued by a CA is unique, so that a credential issued that is based on PKI can be trusted.

Encryption

Another way that PKI promotes trust is through encryption. The CA simultaneously creates public and private keys for an individual. The private key is kept private by that individual and never shared with anyone or sent over the Internet. The public key is stored in a directory as part of a digital certificate. Anyone who wants to send a secure message uses the public key of the recipient to encrypt it. The recipient is the only one who can decrypt it, using his or her private key.

Digital signatures

By far the biggest impact that PKI is expected to have in both public and private sectors is its ability to create and validate digital signatures to ensure the non-repudiation of transactions. A digital signature is created with an algorithm that combines an individual’s private key with the electronic document that is being signed. Since only the person who owns the private key can create the digital signature, that signature can be trusted. This can be verified by anyone possessing the public key for that individual.
 
 

Why governments urgently need PKI

PKI is the foundation on which governments can execute secure and trusted transactions. Whether between individuals and governments; businesses and governments; or inter-government relationships, PKI allows public entities to securely authenticate all participants in a transaction. A combination of hardware, software, facilities, people, policies, and processes, PKI can be leveraged to create, manage, store, distribute, and revoke the digital certificates that lie at the heart of a trusted identity system.
 


PKI is the key to E-government

Streamline operations

It facilitates the Day-to-day activities such as procurement, tax processing, and benefits administration can be executed online, thus more efficiently

Minimize the risk of fraud and waste

PKI allows governments to protect public assets and conserve funds at a time when tax revenues are dropping precipitously around the globe.

Disseminate information more easily and securely

By giving citizens convenient online access to such private information as tax and land records, as well as other sensitive data that previously existed only in paper form, governments can increase citizen satisfaction even as they reduce costs.

Partner with industry

Whether issuing an identity credential in the form of a smart card, token, or other kind of soft certificate, governments must ensure that this credential can be leveraged in non-government applications. This is easily achieved by choosing the right partner and by building interoperability and scalability into the PKI program design.