In an effort to build confidence in online communications, government has embarked on a digital certificate pilot project within the public and private sectors.??

According to E-Commerce Development Officer with the Division of Trade, Industry and Commerce, Chesterfield Coppin, persons involved in the project would be able to "verify the identity of those with whom they communicated via e-mail and be assured about the integrity of the content".??

Mr. Coppin stressed that this measure was necessary because of the high volume of inter-office mail transmission between officers in the public and private sectors.

Given this situation, he revealed that 300 certificates would be issued during the pilot phase of the project, which runs from November 2009 to October 2010.

Explaining how the process would work, Mr. Coppin said: "A digital identification is composed of a public and a private key, along with a digital signature.?? So, when you digitally sign a message you are adding your digital signature and your public key to the message.?? This combination of a digital signature and a public key is called a certificate," he added.??

The E-Commerce Development Officer also pointed out that when a recipient receives an encrypted message, his private key is used to decrypt the message for reading.

Mr. Coppin expressed the hope that the facility would be expanded at a later date.

jwilson@barbados.gov.bb

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