PKI for Progress: Bangladesh Hosts First Public Key Infrastructure Conference

For the first time, Dhaka is set to host the Bangladesh Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Conference to raise awareness among stakeholders about safeguarding digitally transmitted and stored information, ensuring integrity, confidentiality, and authentication using digital/electronic signatures, and preventing cyber fraud and crime.

The conference, organized under the theme “Trust, Transform, Thrive: Enabling Digital Governance with PKI,” is being hosted by the Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), the official provider of electronic signature certificates.

Scheduled to take place Thursday morning at the Grand Ballroom of the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka, the event will gather representatives from various government ministries and departments, financial institutions, private organizations, educational institutions, and other sectors.

As part of the conference agenda, two research papers will be presented:

• “Digital Transformation in Bangladesh: PKI and Digital Signature for Trust, Security and Transparency” by Dr. Mohammad Zahidur Rahman, Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jahangirnagar University.

• “Securing Governance: Digital Signatures in Public Services” by A.T.M. Ziaul Islam, the Regulator of CCA and Joint Secretary.

The seminar will highlight the role of digital signatures in ensuring the security of e-governance, e-commerce, e-health, e-infrastructure, and other digital services. It will also focus on the necessity and authentication of government e-services, e-commerce, online banking, e-contracts, and online certificates/licenses issued via digital means.

In the lead-up to the conference, a PKI Hackathon and Online Quiz have already been launched. The preliminary round of the hackathon, held from May 9 to May 18, engaged university students and IT professionals. The final results of the online quiz, involving students from grade six to twelve, along with the hackathon, will be announced on Thursday.

In the afternoon, prizes will be awarded to the winners by Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, Special Assistant to the Chief Advisor and the Acting Head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications, and Information Technology. The Secretary of the ICT Division, Shish Haider Chowdhury, will also attend the inauguration.

During the event, special recognition will be awarded to two government institutions and two private organizations for being the top users of digital signatures.