The Indian Air Force (IAF) has received licence to issue digital signature certificates, which will provide legal recognition to an electronic document, as part of the AFNET (air force network) project.

The licence would enable the IAF to put into place a public key infrastructure (PKI), a practical strategy for achieving information security in a highly networked environment.

PKI, which is an essential component for providing enhanced Information Assurance and Identity Management Capabilities, would provide data integrity, user identification and authentication, user non-repudiation, data confidentiality, encryption and digital signature services for programmes and applications on the AFNET.

The receipt of the licence forms a significant development towards the IAF net-centric vision, while the PKI will also issue and manage software and hardware certificates on the internet protocol / multiprotocol label switching (IP/MPLS) network of the IAF.