Public Key Infrastructure
On this page
- Benefits of a PKI Certificate
- PKI, HPOS and you
- Human Services eHealth record and NASH PKI Certificates
- PKI Forms, Policies and Terms and Conditions
- Chain of Trust for PKI Certificates
- Configuring your browser for your PKI Certificate
- Healthcare public directory
- Standards and legislation
- For more information
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Certificate is an Information Technology (IT) infrastructure—a set of software tools and hardware, network services and management techniques (policy and procedures) that work together to allow the secure exchange of data.
Protecting privacy for communication over the internet is critical and is especially important when sending health information electronically. Using a PKI Certificate will make sure our online services don’t reduce the security, confidentiality and trust our customers expect when dealing with us.
Benefits of a PKI Certificate
PKI lets you know:
- who sent the message (authentication)
- the message content hasn’t been changed in any way between sending and receiving (integrity)
- the sender can’t dispute they created and sent the message (non-repudiation), and
- that the only person the message is directed to can open it (confidentiality).
PKI, HPOS and you
Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) will allow practice staff who have a PKI Individual Certificate to undertake administrative tasks on behalf of health professionals.
To find out more about HPOS and services available with a PKI logon, go to HPOS logon.
Human Services eHealth record and NASH PKI Certificates
Individual healthcare providers and healthcare provider organisations registered with the Heallthcare Identifiers (HI) Service can access eHealth initiatives using:
- the Human Services eHealth record Individual PKI Certificate for individual healthcare providers—this provides access to the eHealth record provider portal
- the National Authentication Service for Health (NASH) PKI Certificate for healthcare provider organisations—this provides access to the eHealth record system and also facilitates secure electronic communications with other healthcare provider organisations.
Supporting organisations (for example, a contracted service provider) can securely send health information on behalf of healthcare providers using a NASH PKI Certificate for Supporting Organisations.
To find out what this means for you and how to apply, view the Human Services eHealth record and NASH PKI Certificates.
PKI Forms, Policies and Terms and Conditions
Chain of Trust for PKI Certificates
For your PKI Certificate to work, you’ll need to install the Chain of Trust on your computer.
The Chain of Trust is made up of three certificates:
Use the guides below to help you install the certificate for your operating system:
- Installing the Chain of Trust into your Firefox browser on an Apple Macintosh [PDF, 642Kb]
- Installing the Chain of Trust into your Firefox browser on a Windows PC [PDF, 321Kb]
- Installing the Chain of Trust into your Internet Explorer browser on a Windows PC [PDF, 417Kb].
Configuring your browser for your PKI Certificate
To make sure your PKI Certificate works properly once it's installed, use the guide below for your operating system:
- Configuring your Internet Explorer browser for a Windows PC [PDF, 440Kb]
- Configuring your Firefox browser for a Windows PC [PDF, 201Kb]
- Configuring your Firefox browser for an Apple Macintosh PC [PDF, 618Kb].
Healthcare public directory
The healthcare public directory
lets you download other subscribers' certificates and check the certificate revocation list.
Go to Certificates Australia for more information about the directory.
Standards and legislation
We have IT standards for electronic transmission, scanning and storage of:
- referrals to specialists/consultant physicians, and
- requests for pathology and diagnostic imaging services.
These standards, which need to be read, are:
- Notice of Information Technology (IT) Requirements under the Electronic Transactions Act [PDF, 45Kb].
Our PKI Certificates are based on the Australian Gatekeeper framework and meet the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) Health Informatics—Public Key Infrastructure technical specification (ISO/TS 17090).
For more information
| Phone: | eBusiness Service Centre on 1800 700 199 |
| Email: | ebusiness@humanservices.gov.au |
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Last updated: 28 March, 2013