E-commerce security plans in the works

RSA's cryptography to go Singapore-wide

A recent late April alliance between Singapore's National Computer Board (NCB) and RSA Data Security Inc paves the way for a nation-wide deployment of RSA encryption technology in NCB's e-commerce projects.

RSA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Security Dynamics International, and NCB are currently working on a plan that will help establish RSA's cryptography development capability in Singapore.

NCB and RSA will also discuss with local companies the prospective licensing of RSA toolkits to assist local partners in customizing applications for the Singapore National Information Infrastructure (NII). Some of the preliminary areas identified for joint effort include secure transaction settlements, secure communication, Java-based electronic commerce, digital content, and IP protection through encryption and authentication technology.

NCB's role in the alliance is to facilitate RSA's entry in channelling its encryption technologies to OEM developers in Singapore.

"[RSA's presence will] help to bring in critical foreign talent to develop local expertise in IT security. This will contribute to the rapid development of electronic commerce in the near future," said Stephen Yeo, chief executive of NCB.

SETFIRST launched as secure e-commerce gateway

While NCB and RSA have announced joint efforts, Hewlett-Packard Co and Network for Electronic Transfers Singapore Pte Ltd (NETS) have announced SETFIRST.

SETFIRST is an e-commerce gateway infrastructure developed to provide secure credit card payment and settlement gateway for the Internet. It is based on the SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) specification laid down by Visa International Inc.

Being the first of such an initiative in the Asia Pacific region, SETFIRST is aimed at helping financial institutions save time, money, and staffing resources in providing an e-commerce gateway. A typical e-commerce payment gateway setup could cost a hefty US$1 million.

In the partnership, HP will be marketing SETFIRST to financial institutions throughout Asia Pacific through the company's sales and marketing team in the region. So far, only the four big banks in Singapore -- namely DBS, OCBC, OUB, and UOB -- have signed up for the SETFIRST service.

According to Ganesh Ayyar, general manager for enterprise business, HP Singapore, the company's next business target would be Malaysian financial institutions.

SETFIRST is a different initiative from the MSC's e-commerce settlement plan which does not support the use of SET. Thus, whether or not banks subscribe to SETFIRST is a pure business decision, said Wee Tew Lim, CEO of NETS.

In the partnership, NETS will be providing the infrastructural and technical support using the VeriFone vGATE Internet gateway, VeriFone vPOS Point-of-sale Software, and VeriFone vWALLET payment application.