Ares uPKI Electronic Signature Authentication assisted Republic of Guatemala to be e-government

To assist the diplomatic relation with Guatemala and to promote e-government in improving the efficiency of its Customs operation, making it transparent and bridge the digital gap, Mr. Francisco H. L. OU, ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Guatemala, and Mrs. Calorina Roca, chief director of the Tax Administration of Guatemala, signed an agreement in January 17, 2007 at Guatemala time to entrust Taiwan's well-known software enterprise Ares International Corp. to provide the Customs with e-signature and PKI solutions for the foreign trade of Guatemala.

Ares set and applied the electronic signature to the original existing Customs operating system for the National Tax Administration of Guatemala and made it PKI enable. Customs brokers can be authorized to use Ares uPKI security & control components to complete smart-card electronic-signature operation in Customs declaration forms. The uPKI systems in Customs can help check the validity of their electronic signatures. The transmitted electronic data of the Customs declaration form can be validated via the strictest PKI security system. The Guatemala National Tax Administration has authorized 115 Customs brokers to use this system. Each broker can allow five people to be authorized for use of this Customs declaration system over IC smart card via electronic authentication. The system was about to be used at the end of March or the beginning of April in 2007.

Unlike the time-consuming introduction time frame of ordinary PKI solutions, the integration of Ares uPKI into Guatemala Customs only took five working days, which includes uPKI VA system implementation and Customs system integration. In addition, nine companies with Customs application systems developed on various operation platforms integrated Ares uPKI security components for electronic signature. The involved application systems included Java, ASP, ASP.NET, VB and Delphi.

ARES uPKI products can be smoothly introduced to Guatemala Customs operation platform mainly because the products:

• Offer an integration interface with simple, flexible and complete functions: Allow customization for integration of heterogeneous platforms
• Follow international standards: Adhere to international standards such as the PKCS of RSA and CAPI of Microsoft
• Products are of various kinds and are modulized: Support multiple certificates, smart cards and operation platforms
• Various programming languages: Support ASP, PHP, JSP, .NET, Java, VB, VC, Delphi, Lotus, PowerBuilder, CGI, etc
• Explain multiple certificates: Explain the content of global-standard certificates
• Support multiple operation platforms: Windows 2000/NT/98, Linux, Solaris, Unix, AIX, etc.

Ares specializes in researching and developing product technology and system integration. It has an excellent reputation for high-quality information service for years. ARES uPKI is the first VA product in Taiwan. It is used most widely in government units. Furthermore, Ares is the largest company of this product in Taiwan and plays a key part in foreign information security exchange.