To ensure safety of digital signatures, Efforts are on to incorproate it in Mobile connections, Dr V Vijayaditya, Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA), Department of Information Technology, Government of India, today said.

'We are trying to introduce a proxy SIM which will have the digital signature. It will have a co-processor which will generate a private and public key..', Vijayaditya told reporters here.

A prototype of the proxy SIM has been depveloped by one of the vendors and approval will be taken from the RBI, he said.

Digital signatures stored in Pen drives and PCs are not safe as there are chances of their being hacked, he said. The digital signatures stored in private key can be stored in the proxy SIM and it cannot be replicated, he said adding when digital signatures are used in ATMs and credit card transactions, it would be very secure. Presently, such tarnsactions are not very safe, he said.

As of today, digital signature gives 100 per cent security to the data, he said.

Earlier, addressing an awareness programme on here on National Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), he stressed the need for adapting secure communications over the cyberspace on applications pertaining to e-governance, E Commerce and online transactions.

Inaugurating the PKI awareness programme here, Kerala DGP Jacob Punnoose said Cyber revolution is happening. At the same time, security is essential with the advent of any technology.

There is need for safety measures in technology as chances of unscrupulous persons commiting crimes was high.

'Only if Cyber criminals are tracked and brought to book, the public would use cyber technology in a large scale', he said. Cyber forensic is very important. If that is strong, cybe technology will be used by everyone.

The identification for cyber transactions should be unique.

For that forensic support should be identified like digital signature, biometrics, he said.

The symposium was organsied by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to crate awarness on PKI, a vital programme to secure E-commerce, E-Governance and other activities of the Internet.

Rajan T Joseph, Director General C-DAC, said given the rapid spread of internet in teh country and the vulnerabilities of the users, it is important for India to develop the eco system for building secure E Commerce. The broadband revolution and next generatio mobile revolution driven by 3G will fuel growth in the segment and putting together PKI has to go hand in hand with broad band participation and awareness to ensure safe and exponential growth.

C-DAC is currently pursuing R&D in the areas of Intrusion Detection and Prevention, Cyber Forensics, Crypt Analysis, Stegenography, Face Recognition among others, he said.

Senior officers from various government departments , police, and fire departments, industries, banking and financial institutions participated in the programme.

The programme aims at providing insight into the PKI for adapting secure communciations over the cyberspace ona pplciations pertaining to e-governance, online transactions, E Commerce.