KARACHI: International Maritime Organisation (IMO) urged Pakistan Ministry of Maritime Affairs to establish proper SOP/Manual for verification of certificate, it should be developed and published online. 

IMO said MMD website is not secure therefore MMD needs to add SSL certificates to websites to secure online transactions of verification and to prevent hackers from reading or modifying information transferred between two systems. 

It recommended that certificate should be redesigned with embed QR Code which will redirect while scanning to MMD Website with credential to verify certificate by keeping record of verifier. Integrity pact should be signed with certificate repository manager/IT professional. 

According to informed sources IMO during audit of Pakistan Maritime Affairs found that SOPs in respect of verification of certificates issued by MMD are not properly defined. Presently, if someone wants to verify authenticity of certificate issued by MMD, he/she has to send an email to MMD or can directly verify by visiting MMD website by entering necessary credentials. 

Moreover, custody of records of certificates lies with IT/database officials and it was observed that data integrity pact is not signed with officials which create chances of manipulation/misuse of data. In absence of referred pact, it will be difficult to hold officials responsible any type of misusage of data. 

It was also observed that MMD website is not secured as SSL certificate is not installed. This has increased vulnerability of website for users at both ends (Administrators of data and end users), auditors added.