Digital Signatures: Low Cost but High Efficiency

Mr Dao Dinh Kha, National Centre of Digital Signature Authentication Directorate for IT Applications Promotion, MIC, said that“Digital signature plays an important role in securing electronic transactions. It is also an effective method for enterprises, such as SME, to gain the business competitiveness by applying e-Commerce and e- Government”.

 

Nowadays, one of the trends in the information technology development is IT application in government management and business management, which could bring many benefits and efficiencies. A problem here is that how to assure the secure and safety of information electronic transactions among entities.

 

government issued regulations for e-transactions and digital signatures. This allows digital signatures to be used in e - transactions. In addition, Root Certification Authority has officially operated. However, there does not exist any certification authorities (CA) to serve e-business transactions in . Therefore, Vietnam Posts and Telecommunication Group provide digital signature services to the public.

Electronic transactions have some special characteristics which different from traditional transactions, such as the working environment, transmission media … Hence, an electronic transaction must be conducted satisfying the requirements of information security by using appropriate solutions. For the sake of security, digital signatures, which are based on Public Key Cryptography, are needed for electronic transactions. This technology works by using a pair of cryptographic keys, one is the public key, and the other is the private key. It has properties that data encrypted by using one key could be decrypted by the other key. The strength of public key algorithm assures that finding out the remain key from its corresponding key in a public/private key pair is very hard, which almost is infeasible taking into account the present computational power. Using Public Key Cryptography in a secure manner could assure the confidentiality, authenticity, integrity and non-repudiation in electronic transactions. The digital signature in this scenario provides the authentication property effectively.

 

Applications of digital signature in business enterprises is diverse, such as encrypting sensitive business information, authenticating email with digital signature, identity access control in e-Commerce, e-Banking… It is working well with electronic transactions not only in the internet but also over telecommunication networks.

In general, application of digital signatures is the key factor facilitating secure communication with e-government and conducting e-commerce. Therefore, investment in applying digital signatures is reasonable for enterprises, including SMEs.

 

In the end of 90th decade, banking sector researched to deploy the banking services on the electronic environment in which each bank had to research by itself and create its own electronic signature system in order to ensure the security of the messages and data which were sent on the network. These signature systems were very various. And they were designed compatibly with the requirement for each activity, information technology level and investment degree of each organization. In that period, IT application in Vietnam was still at the first grade, so the requirement of security weren’t popular yet and its scale and number of the user were limited. However in 2002, SBV were able to introduce the electronic signature into the payment system by mean of the legal basis of No.196/TTg Decision which were renamed No.44/TTg of the Prime minister after that. It could allow the banking sector to use the electronic signature in the electronic payment. This was the first legal basis on the macro-grade about using the electronic signature in the electronic transactions. Therefore, banking system developed and applied the electronic signature (security code) in some activities such as: internal banking payment system, inter-banking electronic payment system, statistical report system, system of bidding treasury bill

and other activities....

 

In the end of 2003, along with deploying successfully Banking modernization project at the first period, State bank and some commercial banks have been equipped an system of processing the electronic business according to the international standard, established on the relative modern infrastructure of the electronic signature technology. As the result, it could motivate and support the other credit organizations to develop the other activities on the electronic environment.

 

For the business activities on the electronic environment to develop on the right way and ensuring the safety and efficiency of the technical standard, the State bank of Vietnam (SBV) has improved and worked out successfully the digital signature and the digital confirming center.

 

Up to now, SBV has built the key public infrastructure and policy of the digital signature issuing management for the state bank; set up the digital signature issuing and administrative division; and carry out to issue for over 80 state commercial banks, joint-stock commercial banks, joint-venture banks, foreign banks and so on... with more than 600 branches and approximately 3000 digital signature for inter-banking electronic payment system.

 

Mr Phan Thai Dung, Informatics Technology Department, the State Bank of Vietnam said that in the coming time the State Bank of Vietnam would continue to equip with advanced technology and digital signatures for better banking services and securities.

 

Project on trialling on the submission of tax declaration forms through internet, part of tax reform and modernisation program in Vietnam, have been carried out by General Department of Taxation in order to modernise tax declaration methods by using modern equipment. Tax payers will submit online tax declaration forms to taxation offices from anywhere at anytime instead of handing them as present. This allows tax payers to submit the tax declarations forms more quickly and easily, to reduce costs and to save time. Besides that, this project will assist tax officers in receiving companies’ tax declaration information more quickly and accurately and solve the overhanding of tax declaration forms at taxation offices. Meanwhile this will also reduce labour costs in keeping companies’ tax files at taxation offices.

Online tax declaration will be trialled in a number of companies and enterprises located in five big cities including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and apply for only main types of tax including VAT, corporation income tax, special income tax, resources tax and individual income tax.

 

Tax payers need to have internet computers, to use free tax declaration software provided by the General Department of Taxation, to spontaneously register to join this trial program with a certification authority. The tax payers use their usernames and passwords to login their account in taxation offices‘ website and download tax declaration forms under DPF, e- sign on their files and then submit online them to taxation offices. Therefore, tax payers do not have to come in person and hand in their tax declaration forms at taxation offices. The tax payers can get back tax information provided by using their usernames and passwords to login their account. They can also receive the confirmation of tax declaration sent by automatic system of the taxation offices.

 

Ms Le Thi Duyen Hai, General Department of Taxation, Ministry of Finance, revealed the project is divided by three stages: In the first stage: Trial the project in 300 companies managed by HCM City taxation office. A group of state- owned companies and foreign capital companies which are under the control of Companies’ Tax Management Department No I, part of HCM City will be chosen. This is a trial step to evaluate advantages and disadvantages of the submission of tax declaration online. In the second stage: Based on the information collected in the stage I, an adjustment will be made to the trial in all companies and enterprises in Hanoi and HCM City which are under the control of some big taxation offices and are using tax declaration software. In the final stage: the trial will be expanded to a number of enterprises located in Hai Phong, Binh Duong and Dong Nai. The trial is supposed to be done in December 2010, then online tax declaration will be used by all companies and enterprises cross the country.