Authentication, privacy, message integrity, audit trails and other requirements are common - especially for business applications. There are a number of technologies that can accommodate some or all of these requirements, however, several states are exploring public key cryptography as a potential solution. As the Commonwealth and other states begin to lay a public key infrastructure, we are exploring another important component to the general information infrastructure which will support secure electronic commerce. In the case of the high capacity statewide network procurement, the aggregation of demand is having the effect of accelerating service offerings be vendors that would otherwise have been rolled out over a longer period of time. In some cases, services are being offered in response to the initiative that would not have been offered under ordinary, uncoordinated purchase conditions.
State governments are large information technology consumers.
State governments, in their respective geographic jurisdictions, are influential market players. As a taxpayer funded enterprise, State Governments have a duty to use market power to leverage the most economical deals available. However, there lies a deeper public good than merely muscling vendors to provide products and services at the least cost feasible. It is widely recognized that the emergence of ubiquitous and secure electronic commerce is in the public interest. It is beyond the power of any given State Government to enable such a system, not least because the medium is multi-jurisdictional by nature.