Public officials are increasingly using the internet for both communications and the exchange of data. At its heart, the successful distribution of electronic administration and business processes by means of public networks requires the securing of the communication platform throughout the public sector. An adequate level of security (integrity and confidentiality of data) and a dependable level of authenticity (identification and non-repudiation) can be established on the basis of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
A public administration Public Key Infrastructure (also termed 'public admin PKI' or 'V-PKI' in the following) provides this foundational technology as a certificate-based security service to government at federal, state and municipal levels, and to public organisations. The aim of the public admin PKI is to facilitate official electronic transactions between public officials, businesses and citizens at least at the level of IT-Grundschutz, as required by the decision 'Security in Electronic Legal and Business Transactions with the Federal Administration', adopted by the German Federal Government on 16 January 2002.