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GPKI(Government Public Key Infrastructure)

Introduction

Government Public Key Infrastructure (GPKI) is based on the Electronic Government Promotion Act (from Annual year 2001 to 2004). Its purpose is to strengthen electronic government infrastructure, establish electronic certification and security system for executive administration. It is the Hierarchy PKI based on ITU-T X.509 standard, which includes the trust anchor for this PKI, Government Root Certification Authority (GRCA), and subordinate CAs for individual government sectors. Other CAs within the GPKI is established by individual government sectors. They issue the certificates used in applications for electronic government in order to provide more convenient Internet service for civilian, improve governmental administration efficiency and promote applications development of electronic commerce.

The Development of GPKI

In the development of government electronic certification system, the goal of the first phase is to establish a common CA for each governmental sector to test. This single CA performs the functions of Root CA's and other related CAs'. The goal of the second phase is to construct a Root CA, according to the application status and technology maturity. Also each government sector can establish necessary CA based on the GPKI Hierarchy. On August 18, and November 13, year 2000, the Research and Developing Council of the Executive Yuan has gathered officials from other government sectors, experts and researchers to hold a meeting of electronic government certification services. In order to reach the integrity and variability of certification applications, we have decided to divide the e-government electronic certification structure into the following components.

  • Public Key Infrastructure (PKI): provide the public certificate services.
  • Privilege Management Infrastructure (PMI): provide the attribute certificate services.

The Assignation of Each t Certification Authority Responsibility

According to the Promotion Act of Electronic Government (Annual year 2001 to 2004), the following is the responsibility for each CA.

Research and Development Council: establish the GRCA, Government Certification Authority (GCA), miXed Organizations t Certification Authority (XCA) and and Government Test Certification Authority (GTestCA).

  • Ministry of Economics: establish the CA of Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEACA).
  • Ministry of Interior: establish the CA of Ministry of Interior for civilian.
  • CA for organizations governed by government sector will be the GCA.
  • Healthcare Certification Authority joined GPKI in 2008.

The Assignation of Each t Certification Authority Responsibility

  • Establish the GRCA and GCA.
  • When GRCA and GCA are established, shifting the government agency/unit Certificates from the original GCA to new GCA.
  • The electronic commercial certificates issued by GCA will be issued by MOECA.
  • Appropriate CAs now will issue other certificates issued by the GCA. This will complete a systematic PKI structure.

CA profiles

Taiwan's Government Root Certification Authority is the highest Certification Authority in the hierarchical structure of GPKI. It acts as the interface between CAs within and without the Government PKI. The owner of Government Root Certification Authority is Ministry of Digital Affairs. It launched on October, 30, 2002. Its web site URL is at https://grca.nat.gov.tw/. GRCA’s 4096-bit self-Signed Certificate has been built in MS Internet Explorer from 2004 and Mozilla Firefox in 2006.

The subordinate certification authorities under GRCA are Government Certification Authority (GCA), Government Test Certification Authority (GTestCA), Certification Authority of MOI (MOICA), Certification Authority of MOEA (MOEACA) and Healthcare Certification Authority (HCA).

GCA Issues certificates to all Government Agencies (including Government Organizations, Government Organizational Units, and Sever Applications). The owner of GCA is Ministry of Digital Affairs. It launched on March, 3, 2003. Its web site URL is at https://gcp.nat. gov.tw/ Total Number of Certificates Issued Up to July, 31, 2014 is 178,262.

MOICA Issues certificates to all citizens. MOICA's Owner is Ministry of the Interior. It launched in April, 28, 2003.Its web site is at https://moica.nat.gov.tw/. Only Taiwan citizen 18+ years old can apply the non-mandatory MOICA IC card. There are 275+ services provided via MOICA cards. Total Number of IC cards Issued Up to July, 31, 2014 is 4,303, 984.

MOEACA issues certificates to all industry and business groups including, companies, proprietors and factories. MOEACA's owner is Ministry of Economic Affairs. It launch on August 7, 2003. MOEACA's web site is at https://moeaca.nat.gov.tw/. Total Number of IC cards Issued Up to July, 31, 2014 is 1,110,541.

XCA issues certificates to school, juridical associations and consortiums. The owner of XCA is Ministry of Digital Affairs It launched on March, 17, 2004. XCA 's web site is at https://xca.nat.gov.tw/. Total Number of IC cards Issued Up to July, 31, 2014 is 79,207

HCA Issues certificates to hospital, doctors and nurses. HCA's owner is Department of Health, Executive Yuan. It launched on August, 18, 2008. HCA's website is at https://hca.nat.gov.tw/. Up to 2008/ 11/28, Total Number of IC Cards Issued by HCA is 21,050. HCA uses Java Card as token.

GTESTCA Issue testing certificates for GPKI Applications. The owner of GTESTCA is Ministry of Digital Affairs. It launched on March, 3, 2003. GTESTCA 's website is at https://gtestca.nat.gov.tw/. Up to March, 31, 2009, Total Number of certificates Issued by GTESTCA is 25384.