What progress has been made in Australia in setting up a public key infrastructure?
A number of international Certificate Authorities, operated by private companies, are available for use in Australia. These include Verisign, CyberTrust and Thawte (who have established a ‘web of trust’ to provide for localised verification of identity). The Australian federal government itself progressed the establishment of a public key infrastructure for its own use. This initiative, called Gatekeeper, is managed by the Department of Finance & Administration. In acknowledging that public key infrastructure is not a solution for all authentication problems, in 2003 the Government redirected its focus to an initiative known as the Australian Government Electronic Authentication Framework. According to the AGAF website: The Government is working towards the implementation of an Australian Government Authentication Framework (AGAF) that provides a whole-of-government approach to authentication. The Australian Government recognises that different authentication techniques are needed for
