Electronic Payments Forum
[spacer] [spacer]
JULY 1997



[spacer]Mission

[spacer]Events

[spacer]Previous Meetings

[spacer]How to Participate

[spacer]Home

[spacer]Sitemap



 [spacer]

Electronic Payments Forum - July 18, 1997
Public Key Infrastructure Working Group Meeting Report


Chairpersons:

Paul Raines, Federal Reserve Bank of NY
Donna F. Dodson, National Institute of Standards and Technology

The group met on Friday, July 18 to identify and discuss issues relevant to the development and integration of PKI technology in electronic payment systems. The meeting started with a brief introduction by each participant. During the introduction, each participant described current PKI related activities within their organization and identified one barrier which needs to be overcome before PKI technology could be integrated and used in electronic payment systems. Several important issues were raised including the following:

  • How can PKI be used to support international commerce? Some specific issues which need to be addressed include interoperability and cross recognition.
  • There is a need to identify and relate business requirements to legal representatives and technology developers working in PKI.
  • There is a need to understand issues that effect consumers and businesses who use PKI technology.
  • The PKI needs to be integrated into the business infrastructure. Some current PKI approaches may be impractical and inoperable. Solutions which integrate PKI and banking applications need to be available.
  • There needs to be more education about the PKI.
  • How can the PKI provide a time-stamping service?
  • How can the PKI be used to support electronic bonding?
  • What does a repository look like and what business models should it support?
  • There needs to be a description of services that can be supported by a PKI.



Because of time constraints, the working group chairs framed these issues into three questions for discussion. The group agreed that the following questions captured important issues related to the development and integration of PKI technology into electronic payment systems.

  • How can the business requirements for customer acceptance be adjoined with technical and legal requirements?

    The group believes that PKI technology has reached a mature state but that there has not been enough consideration of business issues. It was not clear to the group that the current technology would scale sufficiently for large multi-domain applications. The group also expressed concern that users from the business sector did not understand how the technology would benefit business and financial applications.

  • What legal/legislative framework is needed to support PKI nationally and internationally?

    The group discussed several current laws and statutes which impact the use of PKI technology. There was a feeling that states were developing laws that were inconsistent with each other. This will cause problems with both PKI component developers and users. There was also concern expressed that other countries have developed laws and are developing PKI component accreditation/licensing requirements. Without a national framework, the United States may have to accept requirements set by other nations.

  • What services should PKI technology support?

    The group believes there is a need for uniform tool kits. This would allow for easy integration into electronic payment systems. There was also a discussion about the need for time-stamping services. The group felt a time stamp was important for financial and business applications. The group also identified a need for attribute certificates. It was noted that ANSI X9F has worked on a standard for attribute certificates.

    The group closed the session with a discussion about future activities of the EPF PKI Working Group. Co-Chair Paul Raines reported that the original mission statement of the group was to identify outstanding issues related to PKI technology for electronic payments. In general, the group felt that it would be worth continuing with this mission.

    Back to Top

    Back to Previous Meetings

    Mission | Events | Previous Meetings
    How to Participate | Sitemap | Home



    Last update: 9/21/99