Central Internet Services (CIS)

Central Internet Services enables government bureaux and departments as well as government Internet infrastructure services to gain access to the Internet for information dissemination, communication and business transaction with the public.

These services including Web Content Hosting (WCH) service, Domain Name (DN) hosting service, Internet Access Service (IAS), Internet Bandwidth Service (IBS) and Internet Mail Exchange (IMX) service, provide hosting services for government websites, government domain names, access to the Internet and e-mail communication to government officers. These services were enhanced in 2009 to support the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to assure a seamless communication with all Internet users using latest networking technology.

To facilitate public users in verifying the authenticity of Government e-mail, IMX enabled Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) in 2013, followed by the deployment of Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) in 2018. To strengthen the confidentiality of mail transmission over the Internet, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol over Transport Layer Security (SMTP over TLS) was also adopted in the system using Hongkong Post e-Cert (Server) for transmission encryption. Other Internet mail exchanges deployed by individual bureaux/departments were enabled with those security features as well, to establish a total defense for email security.

Public users may follow this procedure to verify authenticity of Government e-mails.

Since 2017, in view of rising security threats such as phishing websites and man-in-the-middle attacks, Web Content Hosting (WCH) service has been facilitating government websites to adopt HTTPS to strengthen website authenticity and content integrity.

In late 2017, in order to guard against increasing threats to Domain Name System (DNS), Domain Name (DN) hosting service enabled Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC) for all hosted government domains in collaboration with Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC). All resource records have been digitally signed and are ready to be validated from the root zone to the target domain name, so that the authenticity and the integrity of the requested Internet service can be fully ascertained.