A Model for Optimising Security in Public Key Infrastructure Solutions for eGovernment: A case study of Kenya

Public Key Infrastructure PKI quality attributes like security, availability, integrity, interoperability etc. are latent in nature meaning they cannot be measured or observed directly. This presents a problem on how they can be optimized since as Drucker’s maxim goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. We are cognizant of the fact that in most governments, the planners, implementers and assessors of PKI rely on quality management systems like ISO to qualitatively measure compliance to best practices through quarterly audits. Such strategies are paperwork intensive and try to ensure process adherence but lack the capacity to quantitatively measure non-functional quality properties. eGovernments and their cyber security strategies, face massive threats from a knowledge society that has easy access to hacking tools, and also well-funded hacker groups, some sponsored by foreign governments.In this work,we derive a conceptual framework from existing frameworks then model a quantitative decision support tool using path analysis techniques, specifically Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling.The data used to initialize the model is real data collected from an ongoing PKI implementation. We opine that if key decisions are optimized during planning, implementation and auditing, then the security of the a PKI solution will also be optimized. We also provide an eGovernment arrangement that relies on PKI security for identification, authentication and authorization. It is worthwhile to note that although PKI is a universal concept, its design and implementation in different contexts means that each context offers emergent challenges that require unique security solutions.