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The Kuwaiti Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI), the government
organization responsible for the ID issuance for the population of Kuwait,
chose the VeriSign(R) National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Platform to
enable the new effort to provide ID cards to more than three million
citizens and visa holders. VeriSign is providing the PKI solution through
VeriSign’s partner and reseller in Kuwait Diyar United Company (DUC), a
regional information and communication technology leader, under the
umbrella of Mohamed Abdul Mohsen Al-Kharafi (MAK), the prime contractor and
a world renowned organization.

The in-premise VeriSign National PKI Platform gives governments like
Kuwait’s a trusted identity infrastructure that empowers citizens to
transact electronically for government and commercial services. PKI plays a
critical role in e-government by allowing countries to leverage
authentication, encryption, and digital signature technologies when issuing
identity certificates, business certificates, and device certificates. The
trust enabled by these certificates helps Kuwaiti government agencies
streamline operations, minimize the risk of fraud and waste, as well as
disseminate information more easily and securely.

"The new Smart Card ID shall become a key enabler of online services in
this age of expanding technology and the proliferation of internet-based
services. The card shall provide the card holder with digital certificates
enabling secure authentication, digital signature and encryption services.
Paving the way to a more trustworthy and secure experience with diverse
online services, especially E-Government and E-Commerce services. Thus,
this National ID Card program will make it easier for our citizens to
conduct business all while keeping their sensitive personal information
safe and intact," said Musaed Al-Asousi, PACI Director General, the State
of Kuwait. "Partnering with key technology providers such as VeriSign, DUC
and MAK therefore was a key aspect in realizing our project goals and
objectives."

Kuwait’s National ID Card program leverages the VeriSign(R) Certificate
Lifecycle Platform (CLP), which provides the same rich functionality and
robust architecture that VeriSign employs for the thousands of customers
that use its VeriSign(R) Managed PKI Services. Meanwhile, Kuwait retains
full control of the program, since all components — Certificate
Authorities as well as data — are kept in-country.

The VeriSign National PKI and CLP platforms integrate with DUC’s National
Identity System. The DUC solution provides a framework that enables
governments to integrate the latest technologies of secure ID production
with mainframe and legacy applications. The framework allows governments to
provide citizens and residents with secure identity documents in a single
integrated transaction that adheres to the business and security rules on
the legacy system, while supporting all rules defined in the National
Identity System solution.

"National ID Card programs are growing increasingly vital in this region of
the world, and we’re proud to join with VeriSign to build trust and
authentication into Kuwait’s National ID Card program," said Mohamed
Mahfouz, Senior Project Manager at DUC. "VeriSign, as a world leader in
providing PKI solutions, has provided us with a full featured system as
well as excellent PKI knowledge transfer. In addition, VeriSign has
partnered with us in all phases of the project, assuring the solution will
achieve the planned goals and objectives. For DUC and the government of
Kuwait, those unique advantages will help ensure a successful National ID
Card implementation."

"The government of Kuwait recognizes the importance and mission critical
nature of a National PKI Program in today’s digital society, and we’re
proud to provide the platform to ensure that Kuwait’s program is reliable,
trusted, secure and easy for citizens to use," said Phil D’Angio, Director
of Business Development at VeriSign. "Working with DUC we were able to
implement the PKI policies, Certificate Authority (CA) hierarchies,
integrate with a Card Management System (CMS), and conduct the necessary
training and knowledge transfer to successfully deliver the National ID
Card certificates in less than two months. VeriSign’s National PKI
Platform is designed to streamline delivery of the technology and bring PKI
expertise to projects without overcomplicating and confusing its partners
and customers. This project is a great example of how the program’s
maturity and simplicity enables governments to implement PKI at the
national level on-time and on-budget."