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Overview |
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The Ministry of Technology and Communications (MTC) is responsible for implementing national IT infrastructure projects and supervising all projects related to implementation of the Digital Oman Strategy while providing professional leadership to various other e-Governance initiatives of the Sultanate. MTC as part of its e-Governance initiatives setup the of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) for the Sultanate of Oman. In line with the above, MTC deployed a PKI in order to support the use of e-Services within the Sultanate of Oman and to lead the initiation of the e-services infrastructure as stated by Royal Decree 69/2008. The Sultanate of OMAN wants to deploy digital identity to ensure the integrity, authenticity and confidentiality of data and the identity of natural and legal persons accessing to it.
The OMAN national PKI will support the set-up of trusted spaces by using encryption, authentication and digital signature functions. These trusted spaces will help to provide confidentiality of information, identification and authentication of citizens/users, users’ right management at a confidence level deemed necessary to maintain security of electronic transactions and exchanges. Such trusted spaces can be shared with a large population of users inside and outside of the Sultanate of OMAN.
The OMAN national PKI is owned and operated by MTC. Other entities from the Sultanate of OMAN have the possibility to set up their own PKI according to local governing laws and after getting the approval from MTC, using PKI services provided by MTC. In this way, MTC has the ability to host CA (Certificate Authority ) which is providing PKI Services, on behalf of other entities which request ITA to do so. The Oman National PKI Center acts as an Operational Authority, delivers certification services on behalf of ITA in accordance with MTC approved policies, requirements and agreements. The Oman National PKI Center acts as a Certification Service Provider and supports all IT services related to the operation of the Oman national PKI.
Services
MTC PKI has the following services options which varies from providing different types of digital certificates either to Devices or Government and Commercial end user subscribers, and for individuals. OR providing the possibility to join Oman National PKI as Registration Authority (RA) or Sub Certificate Authority (Sub CA) . The following are brief tables highlighting the different services options.
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Options1 |
Services/Certificate Type |
Targeting |
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Gov&Com Device |
Gov&Com Subscriber |
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Options1 |
Authentication Certificates |
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X |
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Signing Certificates |
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X |
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Encryption Certificates |
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X |
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Secure Email Signature Certificates |
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X |
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Secure Email Encryption Certificates |
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X |
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SSL Certificates (Server) |
X |
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SSL Certificates (Client) |
X |
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IPSec/VPN Certificates |
X |
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Server signature Certificates |
X |
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Options2 |
Joining PKI Oman as RA (Registration Authority) |
X |
X |
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Options3 |
Joining PKI Oman as Sub CA |
X |
X |
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Joining PKI Oman as TSA (Time Stamp Authority) |
X |
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Table (1): different types of services options to be provided to Government and Commercial entities
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Services/Certificate Type |
Targeting |
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Individuals |
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Authentication Certificates (eID/Mobile) |
X |
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Signing Certificates (eID/Mobile) |
X |
According to MTC PKI polices and standards it is required to publish all the operation polices which give the end user the necessary trust in Oman PKI services. As well as publishing the digital certificates within the PKI infrastructure. This will help the end user to validate the CA certificates as well as be aware procedures needed to establish the trust relation ship.