As of December 31, 2002, the number of domestic public certification users was put at 5,772,505, about three times the 1,917,410 in 2001, owing to the government's strong dissemination policies.

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) had targeted 10 million subscribers for the year.

A related MIC official said, "Despite the failure to reach 10 million, the 5.77 million is of great significance as an unprecedented figure in the world. Based on the achievement, we will concentrate on the stabilization and enhancement of the public certification system," he added.

To that effect, the ministry plans to further reinforce the management and supervision of domestic public certification and registration agencies this year. Earlier, the ministry had disseminated e-signature certification business guidelines, regulations on the facilities and equipment of public certification agencies and regulations on safeguard measures for the agencies.

Under the strengthened management control, starting from this year, public certification agencies will have to check their designated registration agencies more than once every six months, equip themselves with security measures for internal protection against external electronic intrusion such as hacking, improve access control, etc.

Nevertheless, there is concern that despite the remarkable subscriber number domestic public certification market will not have smooth sailing this year. This is due to the mutual interlinking service for Internet banking, etc. yet to be made, except for the tender field, conflicting opinions among public certification agencies surrounding price policies and the unresolved lawsuit between Korea Information Certificate Authority Inc. (KICA) and Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KFTC)/Korea Securities Computer Corp. (KSC) filed with the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).